The Phillies capped off a terrible road trip by nearly no-showing the weekend series against the Cardinals, scoring 4 total runs across 3 games
The Phillies would open up this series with another abysmal outing in a week of horrors since taking two of three from the Dodgers. They would manage to get on base only five times in the entire game as they lost 2-0. After the first inning, they would only get on base three times as they made Andre Pallante look like Justin Verlander. Aaron Nola would pitch okay in this game until the fifth when he would allow both runs to make it 2-0. He did not make it past the fifth as he spiked his pitched count in the process. While Nola has not pitched overwhelmingly great so far this year, his 0-3 record is also damning on the offense as in his three starts this year they have scored a total of two runs. You can’t win games if you don’t score, so again, the offense needs to come alive more often than it does. Even today’s start of five innings, two runs, and seven strikeouts should be more than enough to win a game. Especially when José Ruiz, Carlos Hernández, and Tanner Banks combine to give you three shutout bullpen innings. Alas, the Phillies offense could not manage a single run in Friday night’s loss that surely in some part was aided by playing baseball in Atlanta until one o’clock in the morning and not landing in St. Louis until 4:30 in the morning Friday.
The Phillies would immediately get back into rhythm during the first inning of Saturday’s game. After a Bryce Harper single and a Kyle Schwarber walk, Nick Castellanos doubled to bring them both home. That would end up being all Cristopher Sánchez would need as he’d go six and third while only allowing one run. It was another start where he did not look 100% but still was able to overwhelm the Cardinals’ offense. The Phillies would get another run in the fifth off of a Bryson Stott double and one more on a Trea Turner single in the seventh. From the pen, Kerkering would shut down the final two outs of the seventh, Jordan Romano would have a quiet eighth inning, and Alavarado would shut the door in the ninth. It was a signature day for this dominant pitching staff, who kept the Cardinals out of it from the first pitch.
The Phillies would have the opportunity on Sunday to right the ship by winning the series, but they instead decided to drill holes in their shop and sink under the Arch in St. Louis. They would lose 7-0. There’s not even a ton to say as a bad Cardinals team shut them out two out of three games this weekend as the Phillies would score only four runs the entire weekend. The pitching was fine as the bullpen continued to leak at times, and Zack Wheeler, for the second time this week, had a bad outing, but you literally can’t win without scoring runs, and they’ve scored six in their last 4 games. After Bryce Harper singled in the third, they would not get another player on base the entire game, being retired 20 times in a row. They would only manage four baserunners and strikeout nine times. This offense couldn’t manage a Target let alone manage MLB pitching.
Ultimately, it was a bad road trip for the Phillies as they lost four out of six, but they still are at 9-6 in the season with a seven-game home stretch upcoming. They’re not even 1/10 of the way through the season yet, so it is hard to make any giant conclusions. However, the concerns are legitimate for an offense that has shown this ineptitude to be a problem for three-plus seasons at this point. This offense has underperformed. Even when the expectation was to be league average. Combine that with a pitching staff carrying the weight of knowing that if they allow one run, they will lose, and you’re going to lose more games than you want. In 33% of their games this year, they have scored two runs or less. Combine that with the fact that they are 9-1 when they score three runs or more, and you see what it is they need to do. The pitching, despite its early issues at times, is doing what they need to. This offense NEEDS to find ways to score runs and be more consistent. They have plenty of time to look as well since it’s only the third week of the season, but alarming trends, that have existed for quite a while with this group, are continuing to show their ugly heads.