PHILADELPHIA, PA - MAY 24: Alec Bohm #28 of the Philadelphia Phillies has water poured on him by Kody Clemens #23 after hitting the game winning RBI single in the bottom of the tenth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Citizens Bank Park on May 24, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Phillies defeated the Diamondbacks 6-5. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
Anthony talked about how the Phillies badly needed that comeback win yesterday in his Opening Diatribe this morning…
“Man, Phillies needed that by yesterday. That was a big game. There are certain games in baseball that mean a little bit more than others. Yesterday was a game that could jolt them. It felt good. They needed to feel good about themselves. Certainly, Trea Turner needed to feel good about himself. He was on his way to a really bad day. He was swinging at bad pitches. The bat was no good. Coming up with that clutch HR was a big deal for him. I’m hoping that carries over.
He is a great ballplayer. We have a caller, Rob from Delco, who was calling in every day to say Tre Turner stinks. And he is joking. We know Trea Turner is a great ballplayer. He just needs to get hot., and start to feel good about himself.
You were done 5-0. Ranger was scuffling early. It looked like he wouldn’t get past the 3rd inning. He actually righted himself a little bit, and have them a decent outing. You can’t give up 5 runs early, but he actually righted the ship. Which made me happy for his next start.
Then you had the comeback. To win it? That means a lot. Nothing has been right. If you look at the first two months, the pitching has failed, the timely hitting has failed, and even the bullpen at times has failed. The bullpen has been kind of the shining light for the team. All 3 parts of your club have not been in sync. The lineup needs to get hot. The weather needs to turn and the Phillies need to drive the ball.
That was a big deal. It is one of those pinpoint kind of moments.”
You can listen to his full Opening Diatribe below:
The 7 Most Concerning Phillies Trends This Season
The hope would be that things would be different for the Phillies in the regular season this year. There was hype last season. But man did they come out of the gate slow. So slow, that Joe Girardi lost his job. Once Rob Thomson took over, things started to change. They scuffled at the end of the regular season a bit, but managed to end the decade-long playoff drought. Once they got there, they really took off. They upset the Cardinals. Followed that up by upsetting the 100-win Braves. And then continued that by beating the Padres to get to the World Series.
You would think that would carry over into this season. They even had what on paper was a great offseason. They signed the biggest Free Agent on the market, Trea Turner. Added some powerful arms in the bullpen. Got Taijuan Walker in. Expectations were even higher than they were going into last season.
But they have started slow again. They have hovered around .500 all season. And every time it feels like they are taking off, they go on an extended losing streak to fall back under .500 and down into 4th place in the NL East.
More concerning, there are some troubling trends in these losses that make you wonder if they really are as good as we think. Memorial Day is coming up, and they are still struggling. It is of course still early. And the Phillies were under .500 going into June last season, then ended up in the World Series. But is that really the road they want to go down again? Settling for one of the final two wild card spots, then having to claw through the post-season on the road? The Phillies need to pull it together. The faster the better.
Here are the 7 most concerning Phillies trends this season so far: