It has not been the strongest start to the season for the Philadelphia Phillies, but this weekend, they might have finally broken through. After getting swept by the Mets up in New York, the Phillies traveled down to Washington to round out a 10-game NL East road trip with 3 games against the Nationals. The opening game wasn’t great, with Zack Wheeler getting knocked around a bit by a Washington lineup that isn’t all that good, but the Phillies ended their 5-game losing streak with a win in Game 2 and then opened the floodgates in the final game of the series on Sunday. It was an awesome performance and one that hopefully points towards a coming breakthrough for a team that has struggled mightily early on this season.
Now, if you’ll remember, the 2022 Phillies didn’t really hit their stride until the month of June. Part of that had to do with the firing of Joe Girardi and the promotion of Rob Thomson to interim manager, which obviously is not something that will be repeatable this year. But another part of it had to do with just the weirdness of baseball. Some people call it mentality, and some people, like Charlie Manuel, would call it “Hittin’ season”, but however you break it down, the June Philadelphia Phillies were an absolute force in 2022. Not only was the team better, but individual players broke through this time last year, mainly Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber, who might be the greatest hitter in the month of June in the history of baseball, turned it on again last year, helping the Phils crawl back into the playoff hunt. So, the bottom line, there’s the origin of the June Philadelphia Phillies.
This year, though, the roster is more talented and less productive. The Phillies have by all accounts improved their team this offseason, and yet the 2023 season has been a striking disappointment so far. They started off the month of June by falling to last place in the NL East, and the fan base fell into a pretty dark place as well. But the losing streak was broken in Game 2 in Washington, and then in the getaway game, the Phillies finally broke out. Of course, it was Kyle Schwarber who played a big role in the Phils’ 11-3 win, hitting a pair of 3-run homers to open up thoughts of a June hot streak once again. Newcomer Drew Ellis also homered twice in the game, JT Realmuto left the yard once, and Ranger Suarez put together a strong start to make sure the Nationals didn’t have any chance of mounting a comeback. It was a beautiful game, and for the first time in a while, there was some optimism of a turnaround.
What a call by TMac pic.twitter.com/cDkMRI6NRX
— Connor Thomas (@ConnorThomas975) June 4, 2023
The Phillies still have a long way to go to reach expectations for the 2023 season, but everyone in Philadelphia’s fingers and toes are crossed that this was finally the breakout game. They’ll start a home series with the Detroit Tigers on Monday night, a team that has struggled this season as well and is very beatable. If the Phils come out and get handled by a bad Detroit team, we’re all going to feel dumb for even enjoying Sunday’s drubbing of the Nationals, but maybe, just maybe, this is the beginning of a stretch where the Phillies turn into the team we all thought they would be before the season started. If not, it’s going to be a long summer.
The 7 Most Concerning Phillies Trends This Season
Aaron Nola's Inconsistency
The Phillies have an Aaron Nola problem. It has been a problem for a while now. At times, he looks like an Ace. He gave up 2 earned runs or less in two of his last 4 games. But also 4 earned runs in two of his last 4 starts. He is hard to trust. You would think in a contract year he’d be giving you his best stuff. But at least so far, he is struggling. His ERA is at 4.31. The Phillies are at .500 in games he pitches. And in some of those they gave him a lead, he just blew it.
The Phillies World Series hopes hang on him being a true number 2 pitcher. Sometimes he is that. But will he be when they need him to be? How comfortable will you be if they make the World Series and he is on the mound for a decisive game 6 or 7? It’s been an issue for a while. And while he may eventually settle in and be great the rest of the season, it is going to be hard to trust him in big moments given his history.
(Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
Using the Bullpen Way Too Much
Aaron Nola has done a much better job of late of getting through 6 innings, even when he gives up runs. The same goes for Zack Wheeler. But outside of them, the Phillie starters are struggling to go deep into games. Meaning the bullpen is getting a lot of use. They are relying on some of these top guys way too often. And for the most part, the bullpen is doing well. The ERA is a bit inflated because of some blowup games. But when the bullpen is given a lead, they usually keep it. They have just 6 losses, which is tied for the 4th least in the MLB.
But if they keep getting taxed, their best arms may be tired by the time the games start to matter. We saw it a bit in the World Series. And you don’t want that to happen again.
Ranger just got back from injury and will take a while to get his arm strength up. And we will get to what is going on with Taijuan Walker and whoever their 5th starter is. Beyond just giving the Phillies bad starts they have to dig out of, that could be creating issues down the road for the Phillies bullpen.
(Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
Don't Have a 5th Starter
Going into the season, the Phillies rotation looked great. Now they may not have a 5th starter. Bailey Falter has been unplayable. They have lost 7 of the 8 games he pitched, and his ERA is in the 5s. That isn’t counting all the unearned runs he gave up his last time out vs the Giants. He was bad enough they had to send him down. The problem is they don’t have a 5th starter on hand to replace him. There are no clear options in the minors, and there are no trade options right now.
The hope was that Andrew Painter would be the 5th starter. But we have not heard a word about him since he went down with an injury after his one start in Spring Training. Maybe we see him eventually. But it’s not something they can rely on. Their best option might be to put Matt Staham back into the rotation. He did well there. But they are relying on him out of the pen too. So you would just be fixing one problem by creating another one somewhere else.
(Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
Awful Fielding
This is one that will not fix itself. They will just have to overcome the fact that their fielding is going to be bad. Trea Turner makes it a bit better. Maybe Harper at first eventually might improve that too. The issue is the outfield. Castellanos and Schwarber are bad out there. Real bad. Marsh has great range but is prone to dumb mistakes. Ideally, Schwarber/Castellanos will be able to DH a lot more once Harper gets into the field. But they don’t exactly have a great option off the bench either. Maybe once Christian Pache is healthy that is the way to go. But no matter what they do they are going to have issues in the field.
(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
