José Alvarado’s selfishness finally cost the Phillies a game. Expect more losses, unless ... Taijuan Walker?

The Phillies avoided the pain of José “10 Cups” Alvarado’s absence for seven days and seven games, but then came Sunday, and well-worn Matt Strahm against a potent A’s offense in their minor-league squat, and that was the end of all the winning.

This was the worst the Phillies have missed their caffeinated closer, and maybe the first time, but it won’t be the last.

Bury Strahm if you like, but only six other pitchers with at least 24 appearances have at least two saves. Sunday was his third outing in four days, his 24th of the season, and even so, after giving up two runs in the eighth inning and blowing a 4-3 lead, his ERA is still just 3.32. He’s already done more heavy lifting this season than the combined Eagles thigh-masters Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, and AJDillon.

» READ MORE: Dave Dombrowski’s moves and Rob Thomson’s strategies have the Phillies on top of the NL

Alvarado’s exit came as the Phillies crafted the best record in baseball with scrappy wins, blowout wins, gems from starters, and shutdown innings from the bullpen. Strahm was a big part of that.

Now that Alvarado is doing time for cheating, Strahm’s workload will only get heavier. Alvarado tested positive for PEDs — exogenous testosterone, the stuff that builds muscle but kills sperm — and is serving an 80-game ban. He will be banned from the playoffs, too. Alvarado had been the Phillies’ best reliever since June 2022, when he returned from a triple-A demotion and the Phillies made their first of three straight playoff appearances.

Maybe now we know why.

At any rate, Alvarado’s selfishness — and that‘s what PED use is, in this age of information saturation — left his club without its de facto closer; the Phils abhor such designations, but he was the late-innings ace. His intentional negligence — that‘s what it was, in this age of information saturation — imperiled a potentially historic season for a $296 million, luxury-taxed team.

Alvarado’s derelict-ed duty now has fallen to right-hander Jordan Romano, who seems to have righted himself after a rough start, and Strahm, who’d allowed just two baserunners in his three previous outings. Orion Kerkering sputtered early but has pulled his weight of late, allowing just five baserunners in six outings. And Strahm has been the team’s second-best reliever since he arrived in 2023.

They need more.

This need wasn’t as evident when they were winning nine games in a row, their longest run since the middle of 2022. But they won those games against the Pirates, Rockies, and A’s, all of which are last-place teams, and two of which — the Pirates and Rockies — are the worst offensive teams in the National League. In five of their next six series, they face teams near or above .500.

They’ll need more.

Joe Ross isn’t it, and neither is Tanner Banks, but then, neither of them was hired to shut down Francisco Lindor or Matt Olson with six outs to go. Carlos Hernandez and José Ruiz?

They’re six inches from unemployment.

And there’s a reason Alvarado’s roster replacements, Max Lazar and Daniel Robert, have pitched in a combined 293 minor-league games and just 19 major-league games.

» READ MORE: Making sense of the Phillies: Are they a great team after all? Or just beating bad teams?

The Phillies won’t trade for a reliever. Not a good one, like the Marlins’ Anthony Bender, or one of the Orioles’ hot arms. Not yet.

Still, they need more.

So what, then? Hold on and hope? Sort of.

Focus. This gets a little complicated.

Aaron Nola is on the 15-day injured list with a sprained ankle. He’s eligible to come off the IL on Thursday, but it‘s still sore, so he hasn’t thrown off a mound yet.

That means that Nola’s replacement, Taijuan Walker, will start Friday when the Phillies begin a three-game series with the visiting Brewers.

And, assuming Nola can resume his season, that will be that. Walker will not be asked to make any more spot starts.

That role likely will fall to Mick Abel, who threw six scoreless innings in his major-league debut last Sunday; he was the Good News that offset Bad News Alvarado. Abel is back in triple A. That role also might eventually fall to Andrew Painter, the Phillies’ top prospect and a top-10 prospect in all of baseball. He has dominated hitters in his three triple-A starts.

This was not the Phillies’ original plan for Walker when they moved him to the bullpen to make room for Ranger Suárez, who missed the first month of the season with a back injury.

Their original plan was for Walker to pitch in moderately important spots; to have him ready to pitch as a long reliever, as he did in his two relief appearances, each three-inning outings; and to have him make spot starts, as he is doing for Nola.

They hoped to squeeze some juice from the rare lemon of a signing by team president Dave Dombrowski. Now in the third year of a four-year, $72 million contract, Walker produced disastrous 2023 and 2024 seasons before some intermittent decency in place of Suárez and Nola this season.

But then Alvarado got caught.

And Walker looked soooo good as a reliever ...

Sure, Walker gave up three runs in his second outing, but they were all in his third inning, and the second and third runs scored because of an error and a wild pitch. He’d been scintillating in his first five innings of relief. He’d hit 95 mph with his fastball, 94 mph a few times, and sat at 93, after hovering around 92 as a starter this season and just a tick above 91 last year.

So, with the team’s best reliever forbidden from showing his face at the ballpark, and with no real help in sight, manager Rob Thomson clearly hopes he can make some lemonade out of Dombrowski’s lemon.

“I’m kind of excited to see him come out of the bullpen, just to see if the stuff plays up,” Thomson told reporters Thursday, “because the few times he’s come out, the one time in Tampa was unbelievable but even the second time, the first couple innings were really good.

“I’m excited about it.”

He’d be more excited about things if José Alvarado hadn’t cheated.