If the season continues like the Phillies played last night, at the end of the season, we would have to label this season by the Phils as one that was squandered. Once again, the Phillies had plenty of opportunities but fell short in the end 5-3 against the Braves last night. Taking a look at the 1-10 RISP, tells you a lot about this game. The Phils were in it all the way through, had plenty of opportunities to tack on runs, but somehow couldn’t.
Kyle Schwarber hit his 22nd HR of the season last night:
Embed from Getty ImagesThis team doesn’t seize the opportunities that it is given. The pace was set early in the 1st inning by the Braves with back-to-back homers off of Zack Wheeler when Travis d’Arnaud and Matt Olson went deep. The Phillies answered right back getting a run on the board. And even in the 7th inning, Kyle Schwarber hit his 22nd HR of the season and got the Phillies even at 3-3. The Braves came back and regained the lead and put the ‘W’ in the win column for the first game of the series, they improve to 43-32 on the season.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe loss leaves the Phillies just 3 games over .500 here near the end of June with a 39-36 record. This type of game is a winnable one for the Phils, but it’s just games that they don’t win. Those losses tend to add up, and at the end of the season, you look back at what could have been. Nick Castellanos went 0-4 with 2 K and left 4 runners on base in this game.
The Phillies have proven they can play tough against the best teams in the league. If they can just get a bit more clutch when they need to be, we are looking at a playoff team. Yes, Bryce Harper is injured now, and getting his surgery on his thumb today, we can’t let that bother the Phils, night after night, and game after game, they are going out there and having success without him. It’s frustrating to watch the team lose games like last night when they are winnable games.
The series with the Braves continues tonight, as the weather is supposed to be great, great for hitting. Maybe Nick Castellanos can show us what he meant when he said, “I don’t have a college degree, I hit baseballs”.