GDT 8/15/23 Philadelphia Phillies (Wheeler) @ Toronto Blue Jays (Kikuchi)

[Lucky_Beagle]

They need to go to a minor league field or a Little League field to look like they can hit!

[Philsmania]

Our saving grace right now is that none of the other NL wildcard contenders are playing well.

[zambonir]

That's because all the other teams are not better (and are no less flawed) than the Phillies (and yes, the Phillies are still better over the last 10 games than any of them, with SF and Cincinnati really stinking it up).

A small sample, but this is appears to be the the new reality: only three really good teams each year, two of which are in the same division. The AL is tighter.

Let's hope the Giants aren't getting their losses out of the way before coming here.

[flyers19rw]

As Don Meredith once said, "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas." The line drive to Schwarber was a ball that any competent LF would have caught and the inning would not have been a problem despite the walks and HBP since they would not have occurred. Continuing to play an incompetent OFer costs this club runs and games and eventually could cost them a shot in the POs. His failures in the field outweigh the value of his HRs. If Schwarber can't DH, he needs to be on the bench.

[zambonir]

I want to disagree with this but Schwarber's offense has become so average that Cave probably isn't a downgrade in practice. Heck, it's so average (after showing signs of returning to form in June) that if they had a better hitter to DH you could make the case for not even playing him there occasionally.

In theory though he's still Kyle Schwarber and if he has to play LF a little bit until Marsh comes back you have to hope the bat will add some value on good nights. No way he plays the field in October. Harper has to be able to play 1B every day by then. And letting Pache, Marsh and Rojas play every day even without favorable platoon match-ups surely still worth it just for defense.

Of course the overall notion that offense doesn't make up for defense is still mostly true of Alec Bohm. He's minus-12 defensive runs saved between two positions. Schwarber is minus-16. Castellanos really has gotten better without still being good (minus 9). The good plays and bad plays these guys make that are obvious to us in a particular game are not the whole picture. Neither are stats of course but they do capture a bigger picture (i.e logging every ball hit to every fielder in MLB, when even our eye test is limited to the Phillies and their opponents).

[EDmuch]

Could it also be said that playing an incompetent pitcher who puts 3 runners on base without a hit is a substantial part of the problem.

[Sabin]

Seranthony has had some command issues this season, but that doesn't make him an incompetent pitcher.

[andyb]

Getting Seranthony right for October is a priority. He just has not been right all year. Alvarado too after the first injury. Throwing 100 mph is just an unnatural act. Hard to sustain. Jordan Hicks dominated us last night, but he has had even more injuries and inconsistency as Seranthony the last few years too.

[zambonir]

Could it also be said that playing an incompetent pitcher who puts 3 runners on base without a hit is a substantial part of the problem.

Going by list rules (though they obviously don't apply to talking about players) this is a personal attack. Seranthony is not an incompetent pitcher. But his performance last night was inept.

If he was or is in fact incompetent than that is on the manager and pitching coach for using him in the 8th inning of a 1-1 game. Except they probably knew it was a risk and were willing to take it. The Phillies could afford to lose that game more than they can afford to not test Seranthony in tight situations and hope he gets right. And if he doesn't that will be a next year problem given the extension too (for Alvarado as well).

It also also facile to act like the walks were bad pitching pure and simple. Guys with that kind of strikeout stuff always live on the edge of full counts and hitters swinging at balls out of the zone. But sometimes, they don't swing (or the stuff isn't good enough to fool them).

And technically Seranthony did allow a hit. Scorer did not change that one. He was charged with an earned run too. If Schwarber makes that out the inning may or may not have ended with Guerrero or Springer but the bases wouldn't have been loaded for Biggio.

[zambonir]

Today's notebook:

Phillies see something a little ‘off’ in Seranthony Domínguez, but don’t expect...

This kind of thing always makes me laugh though:

If Kyle Schwarber had caught a fly ball earlier in the eighth inning, Alec Bohm’s throw to home plate to nail the runner trying to score from third would’ve been the final out.

If Schwarber had caught that ball - even assuming Seranthony would have still walked Vlad Jr, which is also not certain - there only would have been men on 1st and 2nd when Springer came to the plate.

[bkox]

And even if the bases were loaded.. he could have taken the easy out at first.

[Lucky_Beagle]

I wonder if the Phillies would have had a 2-1 lead would a defensive replacement have been brought into the game in the 8th inning? Yes, Seranthony should have pitched better, Wheeler could have not given up a run, the defensive (Schwarber) could have caught a ball, and the offense could have scored more runs.

The game is over time to move on to the next one and come out on top!

[andyb]

Kind of amazing that Hoffman is really our number 2 option in the bullpen at the moment. His usage does not quite reflect that though Thomson is pushing closer to that. Seranthony and Soto have both been pretty inconsistent and Alvarado is out. Strahm has also been a top candidate, but still more 7th setup than an 8th or 9th inning option.

Hopefully Alvarado comes back and spreads out the load a bit more.

[zambonir]

A month ago we might have still said Vasquez and Marte were both better than Hoffman. And the six-man rotation isn't helping either. But you're right, the options in that spot were limited. And if someone (like, ahem, Kimbrel) had just come in and allowed a one-run homer it would have counted just the same as Seranthony's mess.

[julio]