(Lourdes Gurriel goes deep to make it 3-0 in the 2nd inning of game 6 via ESPN WRUF)
Disaster. Disaster. Disaster. This is the word that comes to mind of many Phillies fans after a disastrous loss to the Diamondbacks in 7 games. The Phillies came out flat in Game 7 and ran out of gas for the second consecutive postseason. But there was more to this loss than just Game 7.
Heading into the series, the Phillies were on cloud nine, toppling one of the best offenses in baseball history, the Braves. again in 4 games. Being able to once again tear apart the best team in baseball during the regular season gave fans hope. It led many analysts to believe the Phillies were a shoo-in for a return to the World Series. The Phillies were looking to prove these statements right in the first 2 games in Philadelphia. With Kyle Schwarber jumping on the first pitch, Arizona’s Zac Gallen threw for a leadoff home run. Harper and later Castellanos would follow suit, resulting in a game 1 win. Then in game 2, the Phillies would rout the Diamondbacks 10-0.
However, the script changed when they went to Arizona. The Phillies’ offense went cold against the not-so-vaunted Brandon Pffadt who spent most of the season bouncing up and down from the Major Leagues to Triple A. Despite dropping Game 3, the Phillies were still in control, until the 8th inning of Game 4. Craig Kimbrel blew the game for the second night in a row, as Alek Thomas hit a game-tying home run before Gabriel Moreno knocked in the go-ahead run. Series tied.
The Phillies would respond in game 5, with another dominating Zack Wheeler performance and homers from Schwarber, Harper, and JT. It seemed like it was over, as the Diamondbacks were faced with the near-impossible feat of going to Citizens Bank Park with their backs against the wall and winning both. One loss and their season was over. The D-Backs Merril Kelly shut down the vaunted Philly offense and shut down the crowd. The Diamondbacks jumped on Aaron Nola with Tommy Pham and Lourdes Gurriel going deep in the 2nd inning to give the Diamondbacks an early 3-0 lead. Nola in what was likely his last start as a Phillie got chased in the 5th inning. Arizona never looked back and went on to win game 6. In the first Phillies game 7 in their entire history Rob Thomson handed the ball to Ranger Suarez. This is something he doesn’t enjoy doing since he never seems to give him the trust of Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler (more on that later). Ranger also didn’t make it out of the 5th inning as the D-Backs would lead 3-2 after that inning. The Phillies had their chances with their stars Trea Turner, Nick Castellanos, and Bryce Harper all failing to come through. The Diamondbacks would add one more run on their way to their first pennant in 22 years. So what went wrong for the Phillies in this series, and how did they let it get away?
(Diamondbacks celebrate National League Pennant via BVM)
1. Rob Thomson’s use of the bullpen: Where do I even begin? Rob Thomson got out, managed by the Diamondbacks’ Torey Luvullo all series long. Rob had several misfires along the way. He refused to change a struggling lineup, refused to not depend on a struggling bullpen, and didn’t trust pitchers who have been lights out all postseason to get the job done in game 7. Rob’s over-dependence on the bullpen is disappointing to see as this bullpen has struggled down the stretch, but Topper’s usage of them would lead you to think otherwise. Game 4 is a masterclass in over-managing by Rob Thomson as he refused to stretch multiple relievers for 2 innings and only gave his starter a little over 2 innings. If you don’t manage your bullpen effectively, you’re not going to win. The Fans have also blamed Thomson. “After such a shocking defeat, Phillies fans had to direct their blame somewhere, and Thomson caught the brunt of it on social media,” Fansided said
2. Craig Kimbrel: Kimbrel absolutely imploded. Kimbrel’s lack of control is astounding and when you can’t control your pitches, you’ll struggle. Long gone are the days of prime Craig Kimbrel who could get by with his 100 mph fastball barreling by you. Nowadays Kimbrel sits in the mid 90’s on his fastball. Now that Craig can’t beat people purely on his stuff (pitch movement, velocity, etc.), he heavily struggles. Craig also can’t locate, which leaves him extremely vulnerable. There is also no way out of Kimbrel with the rest of his stuff, as he only has a Knuckle Curveball to combine with the fastball. He can’t beat you on his stuff, he can’t locate, and he can’t rely on other pitches to confuse hitters. This leaves you with an old run-down reliever who can’t throw strikes and gets hit around a lot. This is exactly what we saw in games 3 and 4!
3. Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott: Ironically, two of the only Phillies that showed up in game 7, are on this list. Why? Because the series didn’t start in game 7. Bohm and Stott struggled. Bohm was absolutely disastrous at the plate in the first 5 games of the series. Bohm’s slump while being left in the cleanup spot (more on that later) left Bryce Harper completely unprotected. With the slumping Bohm behind him, it left Arizona pitchers no reason to pitch to Harper, leaving him with little to nothing to hit the duration of the series, with pitchers pitching around him to hope he chased, or just walked him. It didn’t even matter when two automatic outs were behind him. Stott struggled just as much as Bohm did. Failing to come through for the first six games of the series. If Bohm left Harper with no protection, Stott made sure he had no protection. Bohm and Stott knocked in Philly’s only runs in Game 7, when it was too little, too late.
4. Rob Thomson’s mismanagement of the lineup: Rob left Alec and Stott in the 4 and 5 spot despite their mighty struggles throughout the postseason. Not opting to move up JT Realmuto to the 4 spot in place of the heavily struggling Bohm was a costly mistake. If this had happened, JT could have delivered in the spots Bohm had failed in and allowed Harper to make a bigger impact in this series. It was not only Bohm and Stott’s position in the lineup that was questionable, but also Johan Rojas. The rookie who was called up a few days after the All-Star Break was unplayable. In the Postseason he had a .277 OPS. That is absolutely abysmal. While it is true that Rojas is good defensively, so is Cristian Pache, who almost certainly would have fared better than Rojas if given the same game time. It’s hard to hit when you’re down in the count, which Rojas seemed to do an awful lot, as he was seemingly down 0-2 every count.
5. Nick Castellanos and Trea Turner: Wow. You knew Nick had a knack for going ice cold out of nowhere but that was awful. Nick during the season went cold in July where he was one of the worst hitters in baseball. After going deep off Zac Gallen in game 1, Nick went ice cold, to the tune of 0 hits the rest of the series, leaving him a total of 1 for 24. Nick was chasing pitches again and again. This off the back of him hitting 5 home runs in 3 games in an amazing stretch was shocking. Nick will have a lot to think about between now and spring training as he’s gotta start wondering what is at the source of the streaks. Turner was one of the most dependable guys in the lineup until game 5. He picked up no hits the rest of the way and went on to pick up no hits in games 5, 6, and 7. Simply put, you aren’t paid 30 million dollars to pick up no hits when it matters.
6. Hitting with RISP: The Phillies always get their chances but like last year one of their downfalls was the failure to get the big hit. Bryce Harper and Trea Turner had the chance in the bottom of the 7th and both failed to come through. Two faces of the franchise on giant contracts failing to come through hurts. Before that in game 6, the Phillies could have busted it open in the first inning. With Bohm and Stott blowing a chance to jump on Merril Kelly early. This left the door open for the D-Backs to jump on the Phillies early to the tune of 3 runs just half an inning later. BVM wrote, “The Philadelphia Phillies have fallen short of a second consecutive National League pennant due to their inability to hit with runners in scoring position. In Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, the Phillies went 1-10 with RISP, ultimately losing 4-2 to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Phillies’ offensive struggles, coupled with managerial mistakes and poor pitching performances, led to their downfall.”
7. The D-Back’s never-ending fight: Despite the Phillies blunders, you have to give credit to Arizona. There were multiple times in this series the D-Backs could have been finished off. After getting hammered 10-0 in game 2 they could have easily quit. Instead, Brandon Pffadt was lights out in game 3 and the D-Backs walked it off to get back in the series. The D-Backs rallied back in game 4 to tie the series up. Going to Philadelphia for 2 must-win games was always a tough task, but the gutsy D-Backs met it and completed it. Merril Kelly was brilliant in Game 6, as was Pffadt again in Game 7. A team that lost 110 games just 2 years ago now has fought and scrapped their way to the World Series.
