August 01, 2024
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
It's been a frustrating stretch for Alec Bohm and the Phillies.
The Phillies' rut coming back from the All-Star break continued this week when the AL powerhouse New York Yankees visited Citizens Bank Park and handed them a three-game sweep.
They've now dropped five consecutive series going back to their set against the Oakland A's from July 12-14, and are by far caught in their worst stretch of play for a season that has been otherwise dominant, which probably makes the Phils' newfound struggles all that more frustrating.
But they're getting a day off to rest and reset as they fly out to Seattle next for another interleague series beginning Friday.
Until then, here are five thoughts on what became a brutal July for the Phils...
That's just the reality of a 162-game season.
The Phillies were undeniably dominant through the year's first half, and had just about everything go right for them, but to maintain that extreme of a pace the whole way through was never going to be manageable.
A rough stretch was always going to happen at some point, and it's here now.
But...
Because it's been brutal.
After their sweep from the Yankees got closed out on Wednesday, the Phillies have dropped four straight and have lost nine of their 12 games since coming back from the All-Star break – 11 of their last 15 if you want to include the Oakland series right before, which might have been where signs of trouble really started.
A couple of those losses were just straight-up blowouts, eight of them saw the Phillies give up four or more runs, and maybe the most frustrating of all, five of those defeats were by one run with clear points where the Phillies could've very easily flipped those into wins. They just didn't – see Tuesday's and Wednesday's losses to the Yankees as the immediate recent examples.
The Phillies are in a rut, absolutely, but you could see – aggravatingly so – where they could've snapped out of it if they just got that one hit or one more out.
Problem is...
Bryce Harper is 1 for his last 30 at the plate and slashing .115/.148/.308 since returning from the break.
Kyle Schwarber, after a three homers in two games outburst against the Guardians, went 1-7 across the Yankees series at the top, though did draw seven walks.
Trea Turner was 2 for his last 23 since the start of the Cleveland series and was batting .167 coming back from the All-Star Game before manager Rob Thomson had him sit for Wednesday's finale against New York.
J.T. Realmuto, who returned from knee surgery, was posting a line of .231/.333/.231 before he got a rest on Wednesday as well.
And first-time All-Star Alec Bohm, who drove in runs by the bunch through the first half, came back having only knocked in three so far to begin the home stretch of the season – though he is slashing .296/.392/.455 in the 12 games since the break.
On the mound, Ranger Suárez went on the 15-day Injured List with back soreness, a shutout effort from Zack Wheeler in Minnesota got countered by a shelling from the Yankees in his next turn this past Monday, and while Aaron Nola has been relatively solid over his past couple of starts as well as Cristopher Sánchez, the latter did get brought back down to earth when he was left responsible for six earned runs in Wednesday's loss.
The Phillies are a team that runs on their star power, but right now their star power, offensively especially, is floundering, which is causing everything else to crumble.
"It's certainly frustrating for him," Thomson said postgame Wednesday of Harper's uncharacteristic struggles specifically (via KYW's Dave Uram). "He does want to perform and help the team win. That's what he's all about. He' just gotta keep battling through it. You know he's gonna come out of it at some point, I mean he's such a great hitter.
"He's gonna start hitting home runs again and start feeling good about himself again."
The Phillies had Thursday off in between flying out to Seattle to begin a West Coast road trip, and maybe that's just what they need right now to breathe for a second and reset.
Maybe the clean slate of a new month in August will help, too, after finishing July 10-14 – their only full losing month of the season so far.
"You don't want to play the game this way," Harper said postgame from the clubhouse on Wednesday (again via Uram). "You don't want to play from behind or not win series because baseball's all about winning series, being hot at the right time, and doing things the right way, and I can say that we haven't really been playing good baseball on both sides of the ball – guys on base, things like that. Pretty sloppy as well. I think we all know that as a team...
"Gotta turn the page, turn that into August. We got three really good teams were about to play again, so gotta cowboy up and play the right way."
On the trip out West, the Phillies will face the Mariners (57-53), Dodgers (63-46), and then Diamondbacks (58-51), who are all within the current postseason hunt and each steadily playing better baseball or at the very least maintaining it.
On paper, the road in front of the Phils doesn't necessarily give them any breaks, but that said, they still aren't all that far removed either from being the club that swept Shohei Ohtani and the juggernaut Dodgers just a few weeks ago.
They can snap out of this.
As bad as the Phillies' post All-Star break stretch has been, they still entered Thursday holding the best record in the National League and a 6.5-game lead over the Braves in the NL East race.
It's one of the perks of having such a stellar first half: A club gains a ton of time and space to figure things out if they need it.
It also helps that the Braves have gone 4-6 in their last 10 while the Dodgers are treading at 5-5 with consecutive losses.
But even so, this is a situation the Phillies would much rather get out of sooner rather than later. You can only be down for so long.
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