Phillies bullpen woes continue in 11-5 loss to the Reds
The Phillies lost 11-5 to the Reds on Wednesday night at Great American Ball Park in a game that started promisingly with Rincones crushing a 112.7 mph double off the right-center field wall and Crawford tripling down the first-base line at 105 mph to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead through two innings before the wheels came off in spectacular fashion.
Cincinnati’s young lineup turned the middle innings into a home run derby that exposed the exact weakness everyone has been screaming about for months, which is that the Phillies’ left-handed relief pitching is genuinely terrible and the trade deadline cannot get here fast enough.
Rangel got the start and battled command issues all night with only 61 percent of his 69 pitches going for strikes, which is the kind of strike-throwing rate that gets you pulled before the fifth inning against any lineup in baseball.
De La Cruz doubled off a changeup that was up in the zone, Stewart hit a full-count fastball into the right-field bullpen to tie the game at 2-2, and Noelvi Marte led off the fourth by depositing an 0-2 changeup that was up in the zone again for a solo shot that gave Cincinnati a 3-2 lead before Mattingly pulled Rangel and brought in Tanner Banks to try to stop the bleeding.
Didn’t work. At all.
Banks did not stop the bleeding because Banks cannot stop the bleeding.
He has a 7.14 ERA on the season and has allowed seven home runs in 28 appearances after being one of the Phillies’ most reliable lefties over his first year and a half in Philadelphia following the trade from the White Sox at the 2024 deadline.
The slider-sweeper combination that made him effective last year with a 3.24 ERA in 91 games and a .227 opponent batting average has completely fallen apart this season, and on Wednesday night the deterioration was on full display when De La Cruz homered, Stewart homered for the second time in the game, and JJ Bleday homered to produce three consecutive home runs off Banks in the same inning and turn a competitive 3-2 game into a 7-2 blowout that was over before the Phillies could mount any kind of comeback.
Three homers in one inning off a lefty reliever who was optioned to Triple-A earlier this month and brought back because the Phillies don’t have anyone better is the kind of performance that should be setting off every alarm in the front office heading into the August 3 deadline.
This isn’t a slump or a bad outing from a reliable arm. It’s a pattern of sustained failure from the left side of the bullpen that has persisted all season and shows zero signs of improving through internal solutions.
The Phillies Left-Handed Relief Situation Is Historically Bad
Banks at 7.14 ERA and Alvarado at 7.03 ERA means the Phillies have two lefty relievers who have pitched 25-plus games each with ERAs above 7.00, and since ERA became an official statistic in 1913 the Phillies have never had two relievers accomplish that dubious distinction in the same season.
Let that sink in for a second.
In 113 years of tracked pitching statistics across every Phillies team that has ever existed, no pair of relievers has been this bad for this long in the same bullpen, and the 2026 Phillies are setting franchise records for left-handed relief futility while simultaneously trying to make a playoff run with three games separating them from first place in the NL East.
Alvarado allowed a run in the sixth and his season ERA sits at 7.03 because the velocity that used to be enough to overpower hitters no longer surprises anyone and the lack of secondary pitch command means lineups are sitting on the fastball and crushing it when it’s in the zone.
Alvarado pointed to the automated ball-strike challenge system as one of the factors forcing pitchers to live over the plate more often, which is a valid observation about how the strike zone technology has changed pitching strategy across the league, but the reality is that a reliever with a 7.03 ERA can point to whatever external factors he wants and the bottom line remains that opposing hitters are batting him around at a rate that makes every lead feel unsafe when he enters the game.
Tim Mayza has been the Phillies’ best lefty with a 2.81 ERA after originally signing a minor-league deal and making the roster out of spring training, which is both a compliment to Mayza and a damning indictment of Banks and Alvarado because the most reliable left-handed arm in the bullpen is a guy who wasn’t even guaranteed a roster spot in March while the two guys who were supposed to anchor the lefty relief role have combined for ERAs above 7.00 that are historically unprecedented in the franchise’s 113-year history of keeping track of earned runs.
Aroldis Chapman Is the Name That Should Be at the Top of the Deadline List
Mattingly said the club may have to be less focused on matching up left-on-left and more focused on using whoever is throwing best, which is the kind of pragmatic adjustment that a good manager makes when the tools he has aren’t working, but the better solution is acquiring tools that actually work rather than abandoning the platoon strategy entirely because having a dominant left-handed reliever in the bullpen for October is not optional for a team with championship aspirations.
Aroldis Chapman is the name that keeps coming up in deadline speculation and the Phillies need to be aggressive in pursuing him or whoever else is available because the current left-handed relief options are actively costing this team games that they should be winning and the bullpen’s inability to protect leads from the left side is going to be the fatal flaw that ends the season in the Division Series if Dombrowski doesn’t address it before August 3.
Stay Hot, Gabriel Rincones Jr
Rincones has been sizzling hot with a .444 average and four extra-base hits over his last seven games, and his 112.7 mph double off the wall was the kind of authoritative swing that tells you the kid is not overwhelmed by the major league stage and is ready to be a consistent contributor in the lineup for the rest of the season.
Crawford has been equally impressive with a .340/.367/.426 slash over his last 15 games and his triple down the line off Burns followed by scoring on a wild pitch showed the speed and aggressiveness on the basepaths that makes him a weapon even when he’s not hitting home runs.
The problem was that Cincinnati’s rookies were better on Wednesday because Sal Stewart hit two homers in the same game against Phillies pitching and is pacing NL rookies in basically every hitting category on his way to a Rookie of the Year campaign, and the combination of Stewart, De La Cruz, Marte, and Arroyo producing throughout the middle innings turned what should have been a competitive game into a blowout because the Phillies’ pitching behind Rangel couldn’t get any of them out.
Mattingly Wants to Come Back as Manager and He Should
The most compelling detail from Wednesday night came from the ESPN broadcast where Mattingly told Buster Olney that he’s interested in returning as the Phillies’ manager after this season rather than going back to his original bench coach role.
The man has gone 42-22 since taking over a 9-19 team and has engineered one of the most dramatic turnarounds in recent baseball history, and the idea that the Phillies would even consider going in another direction after what Mattingly has done is insulting to everything he’s built over the last two months.
The Alex Cora rumors keep circulating because of his relationship with Dombrowski but if the Phillies bring in Cora over Mattingly after a 42-22 stretch that has turned the season around and put the team within striking distance of the NL East title, the front office will have made a decision that prioritizes relationships over results and the fanbase will rightfully lose its mind because Mattingly has earned the job through the most difficult circumstances imaginable and deserves to keep it based on what he’s accomplished since April 28.
Luzardo gets the ball Thursday to win the series against the Reds and the Phillies need the road version of Luzardo to show up because splitting in Cincinnati would be a fine result heading into Detroit for three before the All-Star break while losing the series would waste the momentum from Wheeler’s 14-strikeout masterpiece on Tuesday and leave a bad taste heading into the break.
Win Thursday behind Luzardo, head to Detroit, and let Dombrowski work the phones for a left-handed reliever because the current options are historically bad and October is coming whether the bullpen is ready for it or not.
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