The 2021 Phillies have discovered a formula to mediocrity.
They achieve this by following the same basic routine in their past few games: solid starting pitching, enough offense to garner a small early lead and then letting all of that go to waste because of boneheaded relief pitching decisions or costly errors by whiny position players.
This was evident in Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Mets. Andrew McCutchen’s sacrifice fly in the sixth gave the Phillies a 2-1 lead. While this isn’t the most comfortable margin, it was seemingly fine because starting pitcher Zack Elfin was rolling, allowing just one hit in the three innings before this.
So what did manager Joe Girardi do? Gave Elfin one more inning, where he walked one and allowed one hit, before yanking him in favor of a bullpen that has the tenth-highest ERA in baseball at 4.40.
And then –– surprise, surprise –– it happened again.
The Phillies, who have a league-high 20 blown saves this year, blew another one against the Mets, eventually losing on a Michael Conforto sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth.
The culprit of the latest ninth-inning meltdown is the team’s usual suspect: Hector Neris, who is tied for the most blown saves in the MLB this season with six. Neris was stripped of his closer title on Friday but was back in it Saturday because new closer Jose Alvarado and backup Archie Bradley were unavailable due to usage the previous game.
Once the save is blown, the most important part of the Phillies’ mediocrity routine arrives: the postgame excuses.
“I’ve got to catch the ball ... I’m sure you’re gonna write about that,” said first baseman Rhys Hoskins, who bobbled a routine grounder to start the ninth. “Don’t forget to write about the great things today, too. We had the lead in the late innings on the road.”
The Phillies are now resorting to hypothetical wins to boost morale. After the game, Girardi talked reporters through a “what if” scenario in an attempt to explain away the loss.
“I really believe it’s going to turn around,” Girardi said. “We’re due some breaks. We haven’t helped ourselves. But you look at the ball that (Kevin) Pillar hits in that ninth inning, if it’s one step closer to Luke (Williams), it’s probably a double play … It’s a different game.”
The Phillies are 3-7 in their last 10 games and are six games behind the Mets for first place in the National League East. They play the final game of the Mets series Sunday at 1:10 p.m. ET before traveling to Cincinnati to play the Reds at 6:40 p.m. ET on Monday.
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Ryan Novozinsky may be reached at rnovozinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
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