NEW YORK — Somewhere along the way, the Phillies stopped being the team that lost only five of their first 30 series. The starting pitching began to show fatal signs, the early leads were not as rich, and the situational hitting was not consistent.
They spent the entire second half showing that they weren’t that team anymore and that the first three and a half months might have been temperamentally hot.
And they proved it last week at the National Stadium, losing 3 of 4 games to a Mets team that was completely outclassed in every aspect.
The Phillies will return home early. Before the game, they were and will be serenaded by Mets fans behind the visiting dugout with chants of “pack your golf clubs.”
“It’s hard to stay excited for 162 games,” JT Realmuto said in a tense clubhouse.
“We were just hoping — we knew we weren’t going to play our best baseball heading into the postseason, but we were hoping that once the lights came on, we’d flip the switch and the offense would get back to normal. It didn’t happen for us. ”
The Phillies entered the final weekend before the All-Star break with a 62-33 lead. It was 33-34 the rest of the way. Including the playoffs, they finished with 34 wins and 37 losses in about half a season.
They had another heated battle over a three-week period from August 24th to September 15th, and won with 16 wins and 5 losses, but they were not able to finish well with 8 losses out of 13 wins.
While the Mets upset the Brewers twice to advance to the wild-card round, the Phillies spent their bye week trying to recreate the game. Now they know how the 2022 and 2023 Braves feel.
“The job’s not done. We’ve got to get better and finish the job,” Bryce Harper said. “…If it’s the next round or the World Series round, everything is going to feel pretty similar.”
The Phillies knew this was going to be a difficult series as they are looking at a mirror image of themselves in 2022. The club got hot at the right time, finished the season with a grueling long road trip to the playoffs, and continued to upset them. A team with clutch hits and comebacks. The magical ride ended with Game 6 of the World Series.
Sometimes ignorance is bliss. The group did not fully understand that even if they continued to improve, they could still decline further.
“You have to play your best baseball at the right time,” Realmuto said. “We showed this year that we don’t have that. We had as much talent as anyone in the league, if not more, but we have to play our best baseball at the right times. .”
“In ’22, we were just riding that wave. We were that team, the Mets. We were the team that got hot at the right time, brought out our talent and played freely. That. That’s what they did to us in this series.”
Adding to the disappointment is the sobering reality that these players aren’t getting any younger. Will Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, and Christopher Sanchez each start 32 games next season? Will Harper, Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos play in more than 145 games again? Will Matt Stram, Orion Kerkeling, and Jeff Hoffman (if they return in free agency) be just as dominant in the regular season?
None of these are guaranteed. What is guaranteed is that the club in 2025 will not look exactly the same.
“It’s the hardest thing to win in sports,” said Alec Bohm, who went 1-for-13 with no RBIs in the series. “We are trying to play what everyone thinks is the most difficult sport to play. So it’s obviously not going to be easy. We have no rights. This time… The ball wasn’t bouncing our way. But we had a little bit of time in the offseason to clear our heads and come back ready to compete.
“I definitely think we’re all tough enough to get back on the horse and get back to where we want to be, for sure.”
The question is how many of them there are. Among the position players, Harper, Schwarber, Realmuto and Trey Turner will obviously be back. Everything else is unknown. If the Phillies are honest with themselves, they’ll realize they won’t be able to counter most of the same offense next season and just hope for improvement or a more timely hitting streak.
“Obviously, some guys are going to leave this clubhouse,” Harper said. “That’s a job for Dave (Dombrowski) and John (Middleton) to figure out what they want to do.
“…We’ve got a great group of guys here, a really good core, but we just couldn’t get the job done.”
There are many reasons why Phillies fans will be disappointed in the 2024 NLDS, one of which is that their biggest overall advantage of having Wheeler was negated. The bye allowed the team to create a rotation with Wheeler starting Game 1 and the deciding Game 5, but that didn’t happen.
He became one of the most dominant pitchers in MLB postseason history, but the Phillies’ offensive line and bullpen denied him a chance to impact the series once again.
They only needed one win on Tuesday or Wednesday to return home with the best starting pitcher in baseball on the mound.
“It’s just disappointing,” Wheeler said. “Obviously, I wanted to go to Game 5, but I couldn’t. If I could have gone, I would have been ready.
“So they always say, just go to the playoffs and see what happens. They’re hot right now. We knew it was coming. I just didn’t play up to that standard.”
I could say so much more, but sometimes the words just don’t make sense. Sometimes the attack fails.