Philly Front Office

Yes, this is a negative post. I am still decently positive on the season as a whole, but the last two nights at Citi Field have been a total nightmare. Monday seemed to be a loss in all the stereotypical ways to the point that I found it funny by the end. My only solace was “at least they didn’t win it off Duran, I don’t think I’d be able to take that.” Well, sure enough on Tuesday…god damn it.

For fun (like drinking bleach is fun) let’s go over ALL the hallmarks of a Phillies loss:

Early Runs lead to Dead Offense

Is there any bigger aggravation for Phillies fans than scoring early runs only for the offense to fold their arms, put up their feet, and collectively say “that oughta do it” before lowering their caps over their eyes to go to sleep? The Phillies scored the first 3 runs of the game on Monday in the first 3 innings. After that? Other than a half-hearted threat in the 4th, no one reached 2nd base. Mets relievers (who stink by the way) retired 15 out of the last 16 batters including an immediate double play. After Marsh doubled in the 3rd inning, the only hit was an infield single.

Letting Bad Pitchers Off the Hook

The Phillies effectively worked both Kodai Senga and Sean Manea into early nights. Both were pulled in the 5th inning at over 90 pitches. While Senga is usually solid, Manea has been terrible this year with an ERA over 5. The Phillies failed to score any runs off him until Greg Soto came in and charged Bryce Harper’s 2-run single to his tab.

It is a familiar refrain though that pitchers who regularly stink come in and work us. Just a few lately include Tyler Alexander, Davis Martin, Brady Singer, Jose Soriano, and Charlie Morton, not to mention all the Mets relievers on Monday.

Runners in Scoring Position

Granted we didn’t have too many opportunities in the series but still, we all know how this works. The Phillies threaten and then get tight. Good teams knock in runners when they have the opportunity. We have been better with this lately, but the last two nights have been a return to insanity.

• Monday
  • 2nd inning: 2 on, 1 out – strike out, line out
  • 3rd inning: 2nd and 3rd (after Bohm doesn’t score on a double because he is obscenely slow) – fly out
  • 4th inning: 2 on, no out – fly out, ground out, strike out (by Turner, Schwarber, and Harper)
• Tuesday
  • 3rd Inning: lead off double – ground out, strike out, ground out
  • 6th Inning: 1st and 2nd, 1 out – fielder’s choice, fielder’s choice

Uncharacteristic Bad Defense

The Phillies had a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the 4th on Monday. With 2 outs and Pete Alonso on 3rd, Mark Vientos hit a ball to Alec Bohm. Bohm was slow getting to it but he was there in time. Well, at least his body was there, his glove was under the ball by a foot. Just no excuse for that. From there, it was single, walk, and then another single on a lousy fielding display by Trea Turner to tie the game at 3.

The next inning Soto walks and gets picked off 1st, except he didn’t. Error on Bryson Stott. A walk and a double and it’s 3-4.

On Tuesday in the pathetic 5th inning, Harrison Bader airmailed a throw from centerfield that allowed Soto to get to 2nd and Lindor to 3rd with no outs. That wasn’t the worst though. Two batters later with the bases loaded, Pete Alonso hits a ball that Weston Wilson attempts to dive for but comes up 2 feet empty. Not only would that have been caught by Max Kepler or Brandon Marsh (or any right handed outfielder they could have acquired at the deadline), but the dive allows Alonso to get to 2nd and Marte to get to 3rd all with no outs. Is this all Wilson’s fault? Well, not all, because he shouldn’t have been out there.

Managerial Mistakes

With a lefty pitching on Tuesday, Topper went with his all righty lineup. Fine, no problem with Wilson starting in left field. However, by the time his dive happened in the 5th, Manaea was already out of the game. Topper left Wilson in to presumably hit even though his spot was 5 batters away and the Mets just used their first lefty. Ok fine, you don’t want to take out your terrible fielder in the 5th. I get it. However, by the time Wilson’s turn to bat came up, righty Hector Brazoban was in. With runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, Topper let’s Edmundo Sosa face Brazoban despite his total lack of ability to hit righties. It works out thanks to what should have been called an error by Lindor. We got away with one. Surely, we have to pinch hit for Wilson with 2 on and 1 out still facing a righty, correct? At the very least, this means a lefty to face Turner next. Nope. Ground out, ground out, inning over.

That same bad 5th inning was made much worse by Topper’s decision to bring in Orion Kerkering in relief of Luzardo. Kerkering has been awful with inherited runners this whole season, but Topper brought him in anyway. Double, single, sac fly, walk and its 2-5. The choice should have been Tanner Banks who has been a god send in these situations all season. In the previous series against the Nationals, Banks came in to a bases loaded no out jam but got a double play and a fly out to end the threat. We couldn’t have used something like that could we?

This wasn’t nearly as bad as what happened on Monday though. Cristopher Sanchez is getting squeezed by the umpire and betrayed by his fielders and he’s pissed, throwing an uncharacteristic tantrum in the dugout after the inning. The next inning it is more of the same and now he’s losing. Instead of taking him out before starting the 6th inning in what is still a close game, Topper keeps him in to give up 2 doubles and another run. Ok, fine, you believe in your guy even though it has been the most frustrating night imaginable. Then why the hell do you bring in Jordan Romano the next inning? Everyone’s favorite hitting machine gets absolutely fried: HBP, walk, single, sac fly, 3-run HR and the game is all but over. That’s playing to lose my man.

Tantrum

What can you do when one of your own guys does something annoying? Alec Bohm stopped the game for 10 minutes on Monday because he saw a reflection from a microphone positioned in CF. There is not supposed to be anything in the batter’s eye so the hitter can focus. This was not a problem for Bohm in his 2nd at bat when he singled in two runs (presumably not in the 1st at bat either). However, after characteristically grounding into a double play next time up, Bohm was now bothered. I’m sure this had nothing to do with his frustration after botching a defensive play the inning before. Bohm has a tendency of doing everything wrong all at once. The bad defense, to the double play, to the complaining, not to mention what happened in last year’s playoffs…he just seems like such an annoying person. If I’m his teammate, I am rolling my eyes out of my head with his bullshit.

Terrible At Bats

I am not going to grind tape of every at bat this series because I don’t want my eyeballs to wither and die. Let’s just go generally:

• Trea Turner: When the game is on the line, no one looks more incapable of getting a hit than Turner, the guy who leads the team in hits. His swing becomes bigger, slower, and he flails at outside pitches from lefties despite theoretically having a better vantage. You can see everything change on the first pitch when you know he doesn’t have it.
• Nick Castellanos: He is guessing. There is no rhyme or reason to his swings and he is regularly not even close. A pitcher can throw a ball that he ignores on one pitch, then he will swing at the exact same thing on the next pitch. What were you looking at? That’s if he even gets to a second pitch. He is swinging first pitch probably 95% of the time. The announcers occasionally remark how he is good when he makes contact on that first pitch, but that’s only because he can’t strike out after just 1. Basically, he is left with his regular BABIP at that point. Of course, you are going to look good if you are only counting balls in play. For a lineup that is desperate to work pitches, Nick and the next guy are black holes.
• Alec Bohm – The only thing worse than Bohm swinging first pitch is Bohm swinging first pitch with a runner on first and right into a double play. These two back-to-back are capable of giving me a heart attack.

Jordan Romano

Romano hitting the injured list with an “inflamed middle finger” is absolutely hilarious. There wasn’t a single person who read that that didn’t think of themselves giving him their own inflamed middle finger. Why is here? I don’t hate Romano. It’s not like he’s trying to be bad. The Phillies should have pulled the plug on him in June. Every other team would have. Instead, Topper keeps putting him out there to lose. That has to weigh on the guy. It’s not like he’s gaining any confidence in these outings. His ERA is 8+ and rising!

Bad Calls

There were bad calls in both games of the series for both teams, but what happened to Jesus Luzardo in the first inning set the tone for the rest of the game. After getting Lindor on 3 pitches, Luzardo’s first 5 pitches to Juan Soto were all in the zone with no contact. Somehow home plate umpire Willie Traynor had the count 3-2. After 2 fouls, Soto watched another ball pass comfortably in the zone…for ball 4. All in all, Luzardo struck him out 4 times in 8 pitches yet Soto was at first. He didn’t score, but Luzardo was looking good and this not only sapped 19 extra pitches from his quiver but his sanity as well. After more (but lesser) nonsense to Starling Marte in an eventual walk in the 5th, Luzardo was ejected.

In a bit of (not) fun, Monday brought us a blast from bad umpiring past in the form of Scott Barry. Barry rung up Bryce Harper on a slow sweeper that was a good 6 inches high or more. This would be just a regular bad call except Scott Barry is a long time Phillies villain. Notably, back in 2010, the Phillies were in the 14th inning against the Astros with Ryan Howard at the plate. A check swing was appealed to 3rd base where Barry called strike 2. Howard was mad and Barry taunted him. Two pitches later, Howard made even less of a commitment on a check swing and Barry rung him up. It was one of the most blatant “Fuck You” moments you have ever seen from an umpire. Then he ejected Howard who was rightfully livid. The Phillies lost 4-2 in 16 innings with Roy Oswalt playing left field.

Killed by the Worst Person You Know

It is hard to win a game when your best players can’t get hits and their worst players do. If you get beat by Juan Soto or Francisco Lindor, what can you do? Those guys are good. But when guys like Luis Torrens goes 3-5 with 5 RBI, it’s a killer. On Monday, the Mets’ 7-8-9 hitters went 8-13 with 9 RBI. How did the Phillies top 4 hit? 2-15.

If you watch this game enough, certain nobodies are going to drive you insane. For me, I hate Cody Ross more than anyone rightfully should. He killed us. For the last 10 years though, it has been Brandon Nimmo. I hate him with every fiber of my being. His walks especially. When he runs to 1st base, it is worse than nails on a chalk board for me. So how has he done this series? A walk on Monday and a walk off on Tuesday. The last 2 days couldn’t be any worse.

[LOL, speaking of getting worked by the worst, after publishing I saw that the Giants Patrick Bailey is currently 3-173 with RISP this season. One of those 3 was the walk off inside the park homerun against the Phillies – @joe_marchione]