NEW YORK — All summer, as the Phillies raced to a comfortable division lead and then slogged through messier baseball, there was one truism that withstood everything. If their starter went seven innings, they would win. They won 34 straight games when that happened. It was the second-longest such streak in Major League Baseball history.
That streak was broken Wednesday in Milwaukee. Four nights later, Zack Wheeler stood on the Citi Field mound and flipped a baseball in his right hand as he waited for manager Rob Thomson to remove him from the game. It is fall now.
This ballpark was packed Sunday night. The air felt a little chillier. This whole road trip, a disappointing 2-5 week against two teams the Phillies could see in October, served as an important reminder: The margins are about to become a lot thinner.
It looks like this: Mets 2, Phillies 1 — a game decided by a Brandon Nimmo swing in the sixth inning. New York prevented the Phillies from trashing the visitors clubhouse to celebrate the club’s first division title in 13 years.
Brandon Nimmo sends Citi Field into a frenzy! 🍎
The @Mets take the lead! #SundayNightBaseball pic.twitter.com/CpoaQt8p7c
— MLB (@MLB) September 23, 2024
The Phillies can win the National League East with a win Monday night at Citizens Bank Park against the Chicago Cubs. They have a five-game lead with six to play.
“I mean, it’s disappointing,” Wheeler said. “But, at the end of the day, we can go home and win this thing in front of our own fans. Start playing a little better once we get home. Try to win these next couple series and go to the playoffs hot, I guess you could say. Turn the page. It’s not the end of the world.”
It’s not, but every quiet offensive night against a good team will open old wounds. The Phillies were not playing good baseball heading into the 2022 postseason. They mowed through the National League anyway. They won seven straight late last September, then lost three in a row. They still came within one game of another NL pennant.
They have six games against two middling teams — Chicago and Washington — to feel better about things. They remain in a strong position to secure a first-round bye; their lead over the Milwaukee Brewers is three games with a tiebreaker. They are a game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record in the league, which might come with strings: The top seed could be paired against the red-hot San Diego Padres (who have a firm hold on the No. 4 seed) provided they advance in a best-of-three Wild Card Series.
This much is becoming clear: The NL is wide-open. Every team in the postseason picture can make a case for why it will advance to the World Series. All of the teams are imperfect. The Phillies are filled with talent and experience. They like their chances.
“If you look at the way that our starters are throwing the baseball right now, it’s been pretty good,” Kyle Schwarber said. “I think we got one of the top bullpens in the league. Do we want to score more runs? Absolutely. And we know that we’re capable of doing it. Some tough luck there. But we’re going to find a way to keep going out there. Overall, I feel like if we keep getting those (pitching) performances, we’re going to win a lot of baseball games.”
He’s not wrong. Schwarber hit a ball in the second inning 409 feet, which is a home run at most ballparks. The Phillies walked four times and stole five bases. But they had zero extra-base hits.
It is a boom-or-bust offense, an identity they have attempted to manage. There has to be better situational hitting. Thomson has stressed a focus on the smaller details as October nears.
Ultimately, these games meant more to the Mets than the Phillies. It showed in how New York deployed its players; the Mets asked closer Edwin Díaz to record 10 outs over two days.
Mets pitchers, like the Brewers earlier last week, exploited the Phillies hitters’ aggressiveness. They are going to chase.
“We’ve had a lot of experiences,” Schwarber said. “And we’ve experienced a lot of really good pitching, obviously throughout this year, but also in postseasons past. We’ve faced really good staffs. For us, it’s going to come down to finding a way to get guys on base and then manufacturing those runs. It’s not always going to be a home run. A run’s a run. For us, that’s our focus. Try to find a way on base and then the guy behind is going to try to find a way to get you in.”
It’s easier said than done. The Phillies struck out 12 times Sunday night, the fourth time in seven games they’d whiffed at least 12 times.
“We’re going to expand (the strike zone) at times,” Thomson said. “Just got to rein it in.”
Wheeler has allowed two or fewer runs in 10 straight starts. No other pitcher in the majors has done that this season. It’s tied for the longest such streak in Phillies history. He, like many of the pitchers the Phillies expect to use in October, is peaking at the right time. The Phillies trust their pitching, and pitching rules in October.
They need some runs to support it. Soon, the Phillies have to take this whole thing off cruise control. They have had a way of doing that when October begins.
“We’re going to find a way,” Schwarber said. “Just make sure we learn from it and move on to this next series. Keep focusing on doing things that we want to do — and keep carrying them into the postseason.”
(Top photo of Zack Wheeler and Luisangel Acuña: John Munson / Associated Press)
