GDT 8/28/24 Houston Astros (Arrighetti) @ Philadelphia Phillies (Walker, T)

[zambonir]

They seem to have backed off the six-man possibility, what with not actually have even five starters.

Look, on the one hand, any one loss, including this one, could be the difference between playing in the wild card round or not. On the other hand it just might not matter. They are making the playoffs, and are not likely to blow the division. Hopefully they can win three against Atlanta since it's at home.

Still think it's weird to have Labor Day off.

[billgtrman]

Didn’t see game last night (TG). I don’t know if anyone brought this up, is that the Phils really rely or feed off on a good starting pitching, limiting the opposing team to 2 or 3 runs or less. I know their record is 35-1 when their pitcher goes 7 innings or more. So it seems every game when this happens, about 6th, 7th or even 8th inning they score the bulk of runs. When T. Walker, or the designated 5th pitcher gives up runs early, the Phillies as a team typically looks deflated or goes back to bad plate management only with a few hits (like the almost no-no last night). They go ice cold as a team it’s really strange to me. I don’t know the answer instead of bearing down, they looked disinterested or disheartened even the D regresses. Thoughts anyone?

[julio]

I don’t know the answer instead of bearing down, they looked disinterested or disheartened even the D regresses. Thoughts anyone?

My thought is that you're doing what some kinds of fans routinely do, which is assuming that any time players fail or come up short, it's because they're "not trying," or "don't care enough." In my opinion, that is a crock.

You conclude that the club is not "bearing down" when they're behind, and the pitching isn't getting it done. It seems to me that it's just as likely... no, make that more likely... that what's happening is that when they're in such a situation, some of them start to press - to try too hard to do too much all at once, and that leads, predictably, to failure.

[zambonir]

The Phillies did not look like they had any offense before Walker even allowed his second run.

All teams play better from ahead. And when their starting pitcher makes a good start. And this team is also 31-16 when scoring 5+ runs (which is likely also normal). It feels like they had a better chance to do that in the first half, but they've also scored more than five runs in three of their last four wins. And 12 times out of 25 games in August (two of which were losses, one in extras).