Rock Bottom: Phillies swept by the Marlins, drop 9 of 12 since the break
The Phillies went down to Miami this week, ran into a Marlins team that had lost 12 games in a row, and somehow came out of looking even worse than they were when they arrived. went in. The Phillies got swept by the Marlins and in the finale, blew a six-run lead.
EPIC PHILLIES COLLAPSE. WE’RE IN IT NOW
The Phils have now dropped nine of their last 12 since the All-Star break and gone from 11 games over .500 to just five over in about two weeks.
They’re still holding a Wild Card spot, but barely, and with five teams stacked up right behind them, that grip is loosening by the day. There are 53 games left, and if you close your eyes it feels an awful lot like April, when this team dug an early hole that eventually cost Rob Thomson his job.
Here we are again.
Wednesday was a must-win and everybody knew it. Take the series, salvage a rough road trip, walk into the off day with something to feel good about.
For five innings, the Phillies were doing exactly that. Jesus Luzardo, the best pitcher on this staff for two months running, had a 6-0 lead against a last-place team on a 12-game skid. That is a win. That is a game you finish without thinking twice about it.
They lost 8-6.
Luzardo took the six-run lead into the bottom of the fifth and gave three of it right back, the big blow a two-out, two-run homer to Heriberto Hernandez on a full-count changeup that he admitted afterward he questioned even throwing.
He was in trouble again by the seventh and left with runners on and another run in. And then the bullpen, the same group that’s been lighting games on fire all month, poured on the gasoline. This was the ace, on the mound, with a six-run cushion, against the worst team in the sport, and he couldn’t put it away.
A Phillies Disaster
The Bullpen Is Cooked and the Options Are Gone
With Kerkering and Alvarado both unavailable, Mattingly turned to Seth Johnson in the seventh, and it went about how you’d think. Johnson got an out, walked a guy, then gave up the game-tying two-run single to Xavier Edwards on an 0-2 count. You had the hitter finished and you couldn’t finish him. That’s been the story of this whole stretch in a single pitch.
The eighth was the dagger.
Bowlan walked the leadoff man, and Griffin Conine, who’d already walked them off on Monday, crushed a two-run homer to center to put it away.
Mattingly admitted he regretted the whole thing, that he probably should have gone to Bowlan a half-inning earlier instead of gambling on Johnson. That gamble only exists because the bullpen is so overworked and so thin that there were no good choices left on the table.
Luzardo Doesn’t Get a Pass Either
The bullpen will catch it, and Mattingly will catch it, and both earned it. But I’m not letting Luzardo skate just because he’s been great lately. When you’re handed a six-run lead against the worst team in baseball, you close it out.
That’s the job and something that an ace does. He didn’t, and “we’ll right the ship” sounds nice in the postgame but it doesn’t put those three runs back on the board. He blew it, and the loss starts with him before it ever gets to the bullpen.
Seven Runs Monday. Six Runs Wednesday. Two Losses.
Here’s the number that tells you everything about where this team is. The Phillies scored seven on Monday and six on Wednesday. They lost both. When the offense finally shows
up, hangs six or seven on the board, and you STILL find a way to lose, that’s not a slump or a cold streak. That’s a broken baseball team. The bats have been maddening all month, and on the two nights they actually delivered, everything else fell apart so completely that it didn’t matter. You genuinely cannot make it up.
Harper Was Right, and Now the Deadline Is Everything
Forget what Philly Sports Talk Radio or all these “Phillies Twitter” dorks want you to believe. Bryce Harper was absolutely right in saying that this team needs help. That’s what leaders do. They call out problems and if Harp needs to go to the media to get the point across ahead of the deadline, so be it.
Bryce Harper is right.
Bryce Harper stood up after Tuesday’s shutout and told the front office this team needs help, both an arm and a bat. He was right then, and after this series it’s not a request anymore, it’s an emergency.
The bullpen is spent. The rotation behind the top three is a mess, with a fifth-starter spot that’s lost eleven straight and Nola sitting on a 5.61 ERA. The offense can’t put two good nights back to back. The defense is dead last in the sport. Every phase of this team has a hole in it.
Dombrowski has days, not weeks, to fix it, and he can’t tinker around the margins. I’ve said it all week and I’ll keep saying it. Burn the farm. This roster as built is three great starters and a whole lot of nothing, and right now it’s losing series to the bottom-feeders of the league. Go get the arms. Go get the bat. Do it now.
ROCK BOTTOM IN THE DOG DAYS BABY
The Phillies went from 11 over to five over in two weeks. They’re pressing, they’re sloppy, and they just got sent home from Miami by a team that had forgotten how to win until
the Phillies showed up and jogged their memory. The Wild Card lead that felt safe a couple weeks ago is nearly gone, and nothing about the way this team is playing suggests it fixes itself.
The talent is real. We all know the names. Sanchez, Wheeler, Luzardo, Harper, Schwarber. But talent that blows six-run leads to the Marlins and loses games where it scores seven isn’t a contender yet, it’s a disappointment waiting to happen.
This team has to figure it out fast, and it has to get real help at the deadline, or a season that started with World Series expectations is going to end with a thud.
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Burn the farm, and let everyone leave, fuck the money loss. Complete rebuild and get you’re shit aligned during this pending the 2027 season stoppage from the CBA. There’s nothing good about this team’s long-term outlook or top to bottom system. Even if we make the playoffs, which I don’t want so it’ll force drastic change, it’ll be a short-lived run. I haven’t been this uninterested in the Phillies since I could remember.