Game 162: It’s win or go home for the Philadelphia Phillies

Rock bottom. That’s where the Phillies are right now, and it’s entirely self-inflicted. On a rainy Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park, this free-falling team continued its horrific late-season nosedive with an embarrassing 12-1 loss to the Rays.

Their once-firm postseason hopes are now down to a flicker, and the whole thing will be decided on the final day of the regular season Sunday afternoon.

Phillies Game 162 Scenarios

• Phillies win, they’re in.
• Phillies lose AND Arizona loses to San Diego, they’re in.
• Phillies lose AND Arizona wins, they’re OUT.

Zack Wheeler gets the ball. The Phillies desperately wanted to save their ace for a playoff opener Tuesday, but there’s no such luxury anymore. Now they need him just to get there.

He’ll face Tampa Bay’s Nick Martinez, a 15-5 All-Star this season, so it won’t be easy but if there’s one arm you want on the mound with the season hanging in the balance, it’s Wheeler.

If the Phils make it, they’d head to Atlanta for a first-round, best-of-three series, which is its own nightmare, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves because first they have to actually get in.

Saturday Night Was Embarrassing

Saturday’s loss was the Phillies’ fourth in a row, and it was ugly in every possible way. They got out-hit 17-7 and have now scored a grand total of three runs in their last four games. That’s coming up small at the worst imaginable time.

The offense that terrorized baseball in August has completely and utterly vanished, and it’s happening precisely when it matters most.

The Phillies are 9-14 in September. On the first day of the month, they held the top Wild Card spot with a 6.5-game lead over Arizona, the exact team they’re now desperately trying to hold off for the third and final spot.

They entered this final homestand Tuesday with a four-game lead. It’s evaporated.

The 1964 Ghosts Are Being Summoned

You know it’s bad when the 1964 comparisons start coming out, and they’re coming out. Sixty-two years ago, the Phillies blew a 6.5-game lead with 12 games to play and cost themselves the National League pennant, a collapse that haunted this franchise until they finally won it all in 1980.

This one feels a little different because it’s a playoff berth on the line rather than a pennant, but the sheer ineptitude of it stings just the same.

The fans let them hear it. Saturday’s crowd was announced at 43,076, technically a sellout, but with plenty of no-shows on a chilly, rainy night. The ones who did show up exercised their God-given Philadelphia right to boo, and they started as early as the first inning which I fully support in this inexcusable stretch of baseball.

The Pitching Was Held Together With Tape

Give some credit where it’s due here, because the circumstances were rough. With Luzardo on the IL and zero starting depth to speak of, the Phillies turned to Aaron Nola, who valiantly started on just two days’ rest, the first time he’d pitched on short rest in his entire 12-year career.

It didn’t go well, and honestly, how could it? That’s an act of desperation, and it showed.

From there it was a parade of relievers. Tanner Banks and Chase Shugart kept it close for a bit, but Jose Alvarado did not, coughing up three runs on a hit and three walks. All told, the bullpen got tagged for nine runs in eight innings.

Newcomer Jose Urquidy soaked up 2 2/3 innings and gave up three and in a brutal twist, Urquidy, whom the Phillies claimed off waivers just nine days ago, might get let go Sunday so they can clear a roster spot to activate Luzardo for all-hands-on-deck work behind Wheeler.

That’s how desperate this has gotten.

We’re Going Down With The Ship

Here’s the gut-punch of it all. There wasn’t supposed to be this level of drama on the final day of the season. A team that was cruising with a massive Wild Card lead a month ago should have clinched days, if not weeks, ago.

Instead, they’ve brought all of this stress and misery upon themselves with one of the ugliest month-long collapses this city has seen in a long time.

The Nor’easter Could Actually Be the Phillies’ Best Friend Here

Here’s a wrinkle worth watching, because Mother Nature might just bail this team out. That nasty nor’easter is still hanging around, and a rain delay, or better yet a postponement, could genuinely work in the Phillies’ favor.

If Sunday’s game gets pushed back to tonight, or even better, to Monday, it buys time for the Arizona-San Diego game to play out first. And that changes everything.

The Phillies’ whole nightmare scenario is having to burn Zack Wheeler just to get in, torching their would-be Game 1 starter days before the playoffs even begin.

If the D-Backs happen to lose to the Padres before the Phillies even take the field, then Philadelphia is in regardless of what happens Sunday. No Wheeler needed. Save the ace, rest the arm, and stroll into October with your rotation lined up exactly how you want it.

You just cannot have Arizona winning. That’s the one outcome that dooms this team, given the tiebreaker. Between the Phillies taking care of their own business and a well-timed assist from the weather, there are multiple paths to clarity here. If the skies open up and the Diamondbacks stumble in the meantime, this whole stressful mess could resolve itself without Wheeler ever throwing a pitch.

Either way, Game 162 will be played.

Right now, it will be played with Wheeler on the mound. Win and you’re in. It’s the simplest possible situation, and after the month they’ve had, maybe simple is exactly what this team needs. No scoreboard-watching required if they just take care of business.

The offense has to wake up for one more day. Realmuto, hitless in his last 32 at-bats and the coldest of a very cold bunch, needs something, anything. Somebody has to step up. Wheeler needs to be the ace we know he is, one more time, with everything hanging in the balance.

This season shouldn’t have come down to a single game but it has. Now go win it, and make every bit of this miserable stretch a footnote. The alternative, missing the playoffs after leading by 6.5 games in September, would be a collapse this city never forgets.

Join The Chase