The Phillies find themselves at 37-34 after late inning heroics in San Diego Thursday night. The Phillies are now 15-5 under Interim Manager Rob Thomson but 6-5 since their surreal 9-game winning streak ended. Outside of the streak, they’re just 28-34. To the Phillie faithful, it feels like they will never have a winner, just a franchise stuck in mediocrity.
It’s easy to say the Phillies have just grounded themselves with the law of averages. However, some statistics would prove that they are back to their losing ways of the pre-Thomson era. In their 5 losses of June, the point differential is -28. That means that not only are the Phillies losing, they’re getting blown out. In 6 wins this month, the point differential is +27. So that’s just the opposite. In wins, they blow out their opponent. Clearly the Fightins’ are not just mediocre, they’re inconsistent.
A main reason why the team has remained consistently inconsistent is their roster. Aside from a few exceptions(I’d argue for Jean Segura and Bryce Harper), the team is full of notoriously up and down players. Notably Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins. Both players are none for hitting home runs in bunches and striking out a ton when their bats go cold. Players like JT Realmuto and Alec Bohm can have 3 hit, multi-RBI games and the next night go 0-4 with 3 strikeouts. Even Nick Castellanos, who has a career OPS above .800, has struggled this year with just a .689 OPS. Castellanos is having such a bad season that his WAR is ranked 1,203rd in all of baseball.
It doesn’t just stop at the lineup. The pitchers follow inconsistencies as well. This season, I’ve noticed it mostly in Corey Knebel. Since Knebel left the closer role, he has been lights out, not allowing a single run since. Eflin, Gibson, and Suarez have also seen ups and downs in 2022.
The Phillies front office needs to learn that you can’t just go out and get boppers and expect to score 7+ runs a night. Every blast needs its bloop. A wise man once said that “Home runs are rally killers.” This is ever true with our beloved Phillies in 2022. It feels like this team is a .300 hitter away from a playoff berth.
