GDT 8/20/23 Philadelphia Phillies (Wheeler) @ Washington Nationals (Williams)

[bkox]

Absolutely pathetic to lose this series with the Nats

Actually its not. The Nats have MLB's 6th best record since the All-star break. Playing above .600 baseball. Even a game better than the Braves.

[allentown]

A bad first inning for Wheeler, but overall and ok outing for him and the overall pitching. The hitters came up weak: too little, too late. The team is in a funk. True the Nats have improved of late, but that merely made the Phillies projected weak schedule harder than thought. Still in good shape to reach the playoffs, but need to right the ship. A season is a series of ups and downs, but the Phillies do look like a mediocre team recently and the starting pitching, which was a strength when they were doing well is now a big ? We will learn a lot from Lorenzen's next start. He is not a guy who had been throwing a lot of pitches, so his no-no game may loom large. He was a guy we got to start and relieve, not be a horse-type starter.

[bkox]

True the Nats have improved of late, but that merely made the Phillies projected weak schedule harder than thought

Well.. of ALL of our remaining opponents.. only the Brewers and Braves are above .500 since the all-star break.

[zambonir]

Disappointing but weird road series. Shouldn't have lost on Friday. Both teams had to make the trip to Williamsport and do all the daytime stuff but still an odd game to have to play in. And Wheeler wasn't even supposed to start it.

If the Nats are good the Phillies still should have won the series (and would have if not for Lorenzen falling part) and if they're not good, well, we've all seen them lose to bad teams too. That's the real question as September winds down, with the games against the Mets and Pirates.

[VoteForKalas]

If the Nats are good the Phillies still should have won the series (and would have if not for Lorenzen falling part) and if they're not good, well, we've all seen them lose to bad teams too. That's the real question as September winds down, with the games against the Mets and Pirates.

Spot on

[Philsmania]

The wild card competition is not exactly setting the world on fire, though the Diamondbacks are playing their way back into things. On the one hand, that's a saving grace in that they have not lost ground during this recent skid. On the other hand, it's a big missed opportunity to create separation. If we go 5-3 instead 3-5 in the last eight games--which wouldn't have been spectacular--we'ld be four games up on the Giants for the top wildcard.

And, this Phillies team stubbornly continues to play to the level of the competition.

[zambonir]

As disappointing as the past couple of weeks have been they are still 10-8 in August which is still better (.558) than their season WP (as well as every other NL team's season WP except the two ahead of us). They also went 6-4 in the home games (.600) which is better than their season home winning percentage (.586).

Which is to say that while they still gotta actually go out and win some games against an historically tough opponent (as well as the top wild card competition) and two bad teams that still have playoff talent, I believe they will come out of this home stand with a winning record, and if it's 5-4 instead of 7-2 it's not the end of the world (especialy if two of those five are against the Giants).

Not sure the "level of competition" theory holds in August either - as has been mentioned Nats are playing well of late and we still went 4-3 against them. And Minnesota, Miami and Toronto are all good teams (while the Royals got handled).

I really think yesterday was a Little League World Series loss. It sounds like the Phillies did significantly more stuff than the Nats (they got there before they were required to be there to see Media play, and Harper, Walker and Thomson also all stayed later). And the Nats had nothing at stake.

[LoneStarPhan]

Since the all-star break, the Phillies are 20-16 (.556) and hold the first wild-card spot.

[julio]