19 Philadelphia Phillies (Nola) @ Miami Marlins (Hernandez, E)

zambonir 2019-08-25 19:58:34 UTC #81

I'm sure Mets, Cubs, Brewers and even Nationals fans feel much the same way. Lucky for us that's the competition, not our pre-season expectations or ideas of what a good baseball team looks like. At this moment they are still in better playoff position than they were Friday. But they also haven't been a likely playoff team for over a month.

Losing to bad teams while handling some good ones is an unfortunate trend, but doing better than .500 on the road is never easy, even against bad teams.

Gotta try and salvage the trip with two in Pittsburgh but overall nothing has changed, it will come down to the September games.

LoneStarPhan 2019-08-25 20:09:04 UTC #82

The best thing about ending the series in Miami might just be the end of the players' weekend. Frankly, I do not understand the concept or the reason for this promotion.

The uniforms this season leave me wondering, why? It will be good to return to uniforms that represent the teams and look comfortably normal.

kmc1019 2019-08-25 20:15:19 UTC #83

Losing the game and series to Marlins with Nola on the mound sure feels like the end of the season.

And Yes, those uniforms are awful and likely not appealing to any age or demographic.

HopeSpringsEternal 2019-08-25 20:37:34 UTC #84

Actually, this is the end of the road trip - the next games against the Pirates are at CBP. Thankfully the Phillies seem to play better at home these days.

allentown 2019-08-25 20:44:58 UTC #85

Ten strikeouts against only one walk. Our pitchers did their job.

flyers19rw 2019-08-25 21:02:05 UTC #86

It seems that the team rarely puts together good pitching, hitting and defense at the same time. It’s really disheartening. I don’t know if they have had a five game winning streak all season.

zambonir 2019-08-25 21:10:34 UTC #87

My bad. But then we go right to NY and Cincy. It could end then if we don't still own the Mets.

All teams are better at home. A good team is .500 on the road and we are not.

And no they have not won five in a row. That one is probably on the starting pitching (though not today).

LoneStarPhan 2019-08-25 22:02:06 UTC #88

Phillies did go 3-2 on the short road trip. Really needed to win at least one more.

zambonir 2019-08-25 22:49:02 UTC #89

Yeah, they all count the same. If it had been 1-1 in Boston and 2-1 in Florida (ideally without the Friday disaster) nobody would have minded. Our road record is way better than the Cubs. Our record against teams over .500 is better than Washington. But overall, those teams win more than we do.

All they really need/needed is two weeks of playing just a little above their heads, and it has yet to happen (though they keep teasing). Whichever one of these .525-caliber teams can actually play .550 baseball get the prize (and the Cubs still have the inside track. Nats are all but a cinch at this point. We'd have to sweep them in a five-game series in DC to even be in their conversation).

Nats now up on the Cubs in extras which would keep us at 1.5 back.

Philsmania 2019-08-26 15:02:26 UTC #90

I remember looking at the schedule after that Braves series in late July when the Braves basically pushed the Phillies around in their own ballpark and thought, "good, the schedule gets advantageous from here on through Labor Day with a lot of games against teams with losing records, except for the three against the Cubs and those two in Boston." Well, since then, the Phillies have only gone 12-13 with, ironically, sweeps of the three games against the Cubs and the two games in Boston. That's 7-13 against the rest, all of whom are supposedly weaker opponents. They've pretty much done the opposite of what I would have expected. Contrast that with the Mets who revived their season by beating up on weak opponents during their 15-1 run late last month-early this month but now are coming back to earth against stronger opponents (though they did sweep Cleveland).

zambonir 2019-08-26 17:42:07 UTC #91

Yes and now the schedule gets tough again but who knows, that might be good.

Except, we still gotta show up for these Pirates and Reds games, our success against good teams does not really include the Braves (though we're 6-6, I'm surprised!), and five games in four days at Nationals Park is likely only good for two wins.

We're 5-9 against the Nats, so at the end of the day while we should be beating the Marlins, it isn't really what's cost us the division (or our wild card position relative to Washington). It just hasn't helped.

On the day you cite, the Phillies had a ..524 win percentage and trailed three teams by 1 game in the wild card. Today they have a .519 win percentage and trail one team by 1.5 games (but the Nats by 5 1/2). That's what they gave away in August, there is only one playoff spot left to chase now.

Philsmania 2019-08-26 17:48:51 UTC #92

Forgive me for resorting to an old cliche but it does seem as though the Phillies have been "playing to the level of their opponent" lately. Not only did they sweep the Cubs and Red Sox but they looked very good in doing so--good pitching (particularly from the bullpen), timely hitting following good at-bats, crisp fielding and all-around fundamentally good smart baseball. Against the supposedly lesser opponents, we've seen their pitchers frequently getting rocked (frequently those called upon in relief), the bats going dormant against previously struggling pitchers, sloppy fielding and frequent mental lapses.

zambonir 2019-08-26 18:03:32 UTC #93

No question. Whether it's actually a real phenomenon - ever - I don't know.

But also, a big part of August was going 2-5 on the West Coast. Road games and West Coast trips never count as easy, plus the Giants and D-Backs were both better than their records. Would have been nice to have gone 3-4, and of course they should have beaten the White Sox at home and the Marlins away for two more wins. That would have been a 15-10 stretch and we'd be 1.5 up.

Philsmania 2019-08-26 18:39:25 UTC #94

The Mets earlier-referenced torrid stretch included a 9-1 record against the Padres (2-1), White Sox (3-0) and Marlins (4-0), Against those same teams during the same time period, the Phillies have gone 3-6.