Baltimore blowup? Don’t worry, Rob Thomson, Phillies fans; road woes are normal and predictable
Topper got tossed in Baltimore as his ballclub made sure it'll go a month not winning a road series. But the L's aren't bad, the team's still good, and they haven't lost any ground in the standings.
The Phillies lost their fourth consecutive road series Sunday.
They’ve lost eight of their last 12 road games, not including their split in London.
They’re no longer the best team in baseball.
The fallout: Phillies manager Rob Thomson lost his usually unflappable mind and was ejected in the sixth inning of an 8-3 loss to the Orioles, all over a meaningless, and bizarre, hit-by-pitch call, reversal, and challenge. It was a crazy scene. The Phillies were trailing by six runs, against a superb Orioles team, and they were going to lose. This was not a change-the-momentum boot; this was a too-much-coffee boot.
There were extenuating circumstances, and there was some building pressure.
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Thomson’s ace, Zack Wheeler, had been shelled and chased before the end of the fifth inning. This happened just three days after his other ace, Aaron Nola got chased before the end of the fourth, in Boston.
Maybe it’s the jet lag from the Phillies’ dumb London misadventure. Maybe it’s summertime madness, as the air gets hotter and heavier. Maybe it’s panic.
Hey Topper: Don’t panic. Not over these losses.
The Phillies aren’t playing bad baseball. They’re just not playing juggernaut baseball. It’s almost impossible to play juggernaut baseball on the road against good clubs.
They’ve given up five or more runs in six of those eight road losses. They’ve lost with poor starting pitching, poor relief pitching, absent offense, and — sorry, Topper — they’ve lost due to a bad managerial decision or two.
You know what they haven’t lost? Any ground.
When this road “slump” began, the Phillies were 37-14, or 23 games above .500. They led the Braves by six games in the NL East.
When they came home from Baltimore on Sunday night, the Phillies were 47-24 — again, 23 games above .500. They led the Braves by eight games.
So, yeah.
Furthermore, while the Phillies are 10-10 in their last 20 games, they aren’t collecting bad losses.
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They lost two of three in Baltimore over the weekend, but the O’s have the same record as the Phillies, won 101 games last season, and have the most wins in baseball since the beginning of 2023. Wheeler, the Phillies’ best pitcher since Steve Carlton, on Sunday allowed eight earned runs for the first time in six years in the second-worst start of his Hall of Fame-caliber career. He might have lost the Cy Young Award for this season, but he didn’t lose his chance at a World Series ring.
They lost two of three in Boston last week, but the Red Sox, two games over .500, are sixth in baseball in team OPS, seventh in team ERA, and they play in baseball’s toughest division (after the Phillies left they took two of three from their division rival Yankees, the actual best team in baseball). Also, the Phillies hit Boston a day removed from a stupid two-game gimmick series in London against the Mets, which robbed the Phils of one home game and about 22 hours of sleep.
They lost two of three in San Francisco in late May, but one was a 1-0 extra-innings loss; the other, Taijuan Walker (inexplicably) started. The Giants don’t stink; they’re two games under .500 and pretty good at home.
Great teams lose to good teams on the road. But they destroy bad teams, and that’s what the Phillies have done … usually.
They did lose two of three in Colorado the series before San Francisco, and yes, the Rockies stink, but one of the losses was another low-scoring, extra-innings game, and the other was Ranger Suárez’s only clunker in 14 starts.
The Phillies aren’t going to win out. What’s more, they might not be truly great — leadoff hitter Kyle Schwarber is still hitting .215 in two-plus seasons as a Phillie, hammer-handed Trea Turner is returning to play shortstop, and Nick Castellanos still plays right field and is in the lineup every day — but at least they’re losing the games they’re supposed to lose.
They’re still on pace to win 107 games.
They’re still playing sound baseball.
They went 2-4 on this last road trip, but they played that road trip without J.T. Realmuto, the best catcher in baseball, who was hitting second in the lineup and handing the eclectic pitching staff like a psychologist with multiple PhDs.
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They went two weeks without Brandon Marsh, who has been their best option in left field.
They’ve endured the entire road slump without Turner, the $300 million man who was hitting .343 with an .852 OPS and 10 steals in the No. 2 spot before he hurt his hamstring May 3. He is set to return Monday, when the Phillies begin a three-game set against the Padres to start a six-game homestand.
So, while the Phillies might no longer be the Best Team in Baseball, they’re 27-10 at Citizens Bank Park — the best home team in baseball.