Phillies’ losing streak extends to three; Not time to sound the panic alarm yet
Not ideal, lackluster, frustrating are among the long list of words applicable to describe the Phillies’ play on this road trip in round two against the prominent division competition. Even though not being able to capitalize on a near-perfect start lowers morale slightly, we’ll be able to get a sense early of how well this team handles adversity. We saw opening week if five or six-hitters in our lineup are swinging well, the offense will at least tally enough runs with the back up of quality pitching the win more times than not.
However, when a big-time bat like Rhys Hoskins goes from scorching hot to glacial, that drives a significant dent into the production the top of the lineup was generating. In his last seven days, Hoskins is hitting .091; Harper would need to hit .350, followed with Bohm and J.T.’s support to scratch the surface of compensating for Rhys. The bottom line here is, Rhys taking the steepest dive in play as of late needs to turn it around sooner than the rest, but the Phillies need the surrounding stars like Harper and Bohm to pick up the pace too.
While that’s asking more than usual to shoulder, the unfortunate reality right now is 2/3 of the Phillies outfield are outs. Hopefully, this issue pertains solely to the left-field shortly, with Mikey Moniak receiving his first opportunity to show if his spring training performance bears fruit. If so, Andrew McCutchen becomes the main outfield liability until he figures out his approach. Looking through an optimistic scope, it’s early, and he’s still working through nailing down his timing. Those types of excuses aren’t afforded, though, when riding a three-game losing streak. Otherwise, offensively, J.T, Didi, and Segura keep plugging along doing their thing and will be required to keep up that pace until their teammates follow suit.
Zack Wheeler settled down for the most part last night after a rough beginning to his outing. His big thing is to get on top of hitters and locate more effectively. If you tuned into the Phillies broadcast, Wheeler spoke to how imperative he feels those two objectives are in a quote they posted in the first inning. Nola, similar to Wheeler from a consistency perspective, needs to find his breaking ball more regularly. Most should know now watching Nola frequently that his game relies on movement and deception, the movement being the essential part of the pair. When that isn’t there for him, he’ll run into trouble during the middle innings like he did last start. Both Wheeler and Nola need strong seven-inning starts allowing one run or less in their next starts to mitigate any worry on their performance level this season.
The bullpen still looks solid, Coonrod is receiving more well-deserved opportunities. Alvarado is living up to his hard-throwing, sometimes out-of-control reputation to a tee. Effectively wild repertoires can provide value in tight and high leverage games, so the Phillies should be all-in on using him in those situations. Hector, outside of the concern, his velocity still sits about 3-4 miles lower than usual, is still finding a way to tally outs with a 1.69 ERA and 1.31 WHIP. Neris pitches to contact more regularly, now placing him and at a disadvantage in extra-inning save opportunities. Alvarado may serve as the better option or even Brogdon in cases like extra-inning saves, considering their tools veer towards more strikeouts.
Overall, yes, this recent streak of losing flat out stinks. Still, there’s an excellent opportunity for redemption with six home games upcoming against the Cardinals and Giants, who, record-wise, sit closely in line with the Phils. Highs and lows come with every baseball season, while the Phillies’ first low came sooner than everyone wished; it’s beneficial to see how they dust themselves off early on and set a tone for the type of team they will be forging through the rest of the season.
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Categorized:Phillies