PHILLIES FAILING PITCHERS GAVE UP 40 RUNS IN 4 GAMES!
By Sam Bush
The Phillies pitchers have given up 40 runs in four games during this West Coast trip, the most in any four-game span since 2016.
“It’s a different team,” Bryce Harper said. “It’s a different group of guys. A different manager. We have a long ways to go. We have to keep playing our game, keep doing our thing. Not every night’s going to be like that.”
The Phillies entered the weekend with a better than 85 percent chance to make the postseason — according to three different public projection models — and it means they can spend more time thinking about the bigger picture.
As The Athletic’s Matt Gelb wrote:
Maybe, if the standings were different, Zack Wheeler would be pitching through some elbow inflammation. But he is not. The Phillies are in a position to be conservative with their pitching decisions. They aren’t cocky about it; just realistic.
That does not lessen the importance of this month for specific pitchers.
The Phillies expect to have Wheeler and Aaron Nola in the first two games of a three-game series. That gives them a fighting chance — even on the road. Who would start a decisive Game 3?
Or, another way of phrasing it: Who will step up right now when the Phillies could use some competent starting pitching?
