The Phillies lost to the Braves again and the overall numbers are getting historically ugly

The Phillies fell 6-2 to the Braves in the series finale at Truist Park on Sunday and lost another series to Atlanta. The losing streak is over but the losing isn’t. This team is 9-19 and playing some of the most lifeless, uncompetitive baseball I’ve watched from a roster with this much talent.

Aaron Nola got shelled early with a three-run homer by Matt Olson and a two-run shot by Eli White, Atlanta’s No. 8 hitter, to fall behind 6-0 before the game even had a pulse. Chris Sale was on the other side and went six innings, allowed one hit, zero runs, and struck out nine. The Phillies never had a chance.

Nola Has a Real Problem

Nola’s fastball location was off all night and his knuckle curve wasn’t sharp. When you don’t throw 97 mph, you cannot afford to miss spots. Nola missed spots. On the Olson homer, he left a 93.5 mph fastball up and in, out of the zone, and Olson still yanked it into the Chop House seats. That’s what happens when hitters know the velocity isn’t going to beat them. They can cheat and punish mistakes.

The long ball has become Nola’s defining problem. Since the start of 2023, he has allowed 86 home runs in 518 2/3 innings for a 1.49 HR/9, the second-highest mark among starting pitchers with at least 500 innings in that span. He carries a 6.03 ERA through six starts this season. Last year he posted a career-high 6.01 ERA. The regression isn’t a blip anymore. It’s a trend and it needs to be addressed.

Phillies Starters Can’t Get Through Five Innings

Rob Thomson mentioned before the game that long innings from the starters have been one of the Phillies’ biggest problems. Sunday was a perfect example. A 23-pitch first inning. A 27-pitch second. A 26-pitch fourth. Nola was working hard to get through every frame and it wore him down before he could give the team any length.

This isn’t just a Nola problem. Phillies starters lead the National League in pitches per inning at 17.7 with the league’s highest WHIP at 1.64. They also lead the majors in 25-plus pitch innings. They’ve allowed two or more runs in an inning 44 times, the most in baseball. The last Phillies team to allow that many this early in a season was 1956.

The most staggering stat is this. The Phillies led the majors in starts of seven innings or more in both 2024 and 2025 with 37 and 39 respectively, 10 more than the next closest team last year. Through 28 games in 2026, they still don’t have a single one. Not one seven-inning start from any pitcher on the staff. That has put enormous strain on a bullpen that is already missing Jonathan Bowlan, Zach Pop, and Jhoan Duran to the injured list.

0-10 Against Left-Handed Starters

This number is indefensible. The Phillies are 0-10 in games started by left-handed pitchers who are not openers. That’s the longest such streak in the majors since the 2007 Royals, who finished 69-93. When your comp is a Kansas City team that lost 93 games, you have a serious structural problem in your lineup.

The underlying numbers are even uglier. Phillies right-handed hitters have produced a .501 OPS against left-handed pitching this season. Since those splits started being tracked in 1974, that is the worst mark in baseball history. The worst. In 52 years. They also have the lowest batting average against lefties at .168, the lowest slugging at .249, and a .204 BABIP. Those numbers tell you this isn’t just bad luck or a rough stretch. The righties in this lineup cannot hit left-handed pitching and the front office hasn’t done enough to address it.

The Phillies have tried shuffling the lineup against southpaws. They’ve even batted Felix Reyes cleanup and the kid still hasn’t logged 20 big league at-bats. Something has to change because the current approach is producing historically bad results and every team in baseball knows it. Schedule a lefty against Philadelphia and you’re basically getting a free win right now.

The Pressure Is Building

Thomson was asked about the outside noise that comes with a losing stretch this long. He referenced his time in the Yankees organization and said he’s not consumed by job-security speculation. Dombrowski said earlier this week that the Phillies are not looking to fire their manager. Fine. But nobody is asking whether Thomson’s job is safe because of his managerial decisions. They’re asking because this team is 9-19 with a $300 million payroll and the offense is one of the worst in baseball.

Hitting coach Kevin Long is naturally part of that conversation. When your right-handed hitters are producing the worst numbers against left-handed pitching in the history of the sport, someone in that coaching staff needs to answer for it. Long has been here since 2022 and the Phillies have had some of the best offensive seasons in franchise history under him. But this year the approach has been broken from day one and nobody seems to have a fix.

The Phillies have a travel day and an off day Monday. The conversation around this team isn’t going to quiet down. It shouldn’t. This roster is too talented and too expensive to be sitting at 9-19 with historically bad splits against left-handed pitching, a rotation that can’t get out of the fifth inning, and an offense that looks lost every time it steps to the plate.

I keep saying this team is too good to be this bad. I still believe it. But at some point the “too good” part needs to actually show up on the field because right now the results are telling a very different story.

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