What went Wrong in the Phillies’ 2024 Playoff Run?
Cole Reed
Just as soon as it started, the Phillies postseason run comes to a tragic, underwhelming end at the hands of the New York Mets. The 95 win Fightin’ Phils, fresh off our best regular season in 13 years, just seemed to lose all fight once our red-hot rivals from queens came into town, and we were simply outplayed in every sense of the game by a team that we were essentially already looking past. However, all the complaining in the world does not answer the most pressing question at hand- what EXACTLY happened to cause such a catastrophic failure?
By the end of June, the Phillies boasted a commanding 55-29 record, and fans all across the city were already planning the logistics of the Broad Street parade. Finally, our up and down ballclub had it all figured out- our bats were on fire, our starting pitching rotation was lights-out, and the bullpen was strong enough to close out any games we needed them to. We were on pace to easily take the 1 seed in the National League, and cruise our way to our first World Series Title since 2008. However, with July came the struggles that always seem to plague the Phils at some point in every year. Injuries started to pervade the team, and the players who did stay healthy enough fell off their hot streaks and into slumps. The Phillies picked themselves back up towards the end of August and finished September relatively strong, but they never seemed to regain that fire from their dominant spring. They picked up the 2 seed in the National League, and as such gained a bye for the Wild Card round. Across the nation, the storyline surrounding the Phillies featured the million dollar question: Will we see the May Phillies or the mid-July Phillies when the playoffs come around?
Unfortunately, the surprise answer to that question was neither. In fact, we would see a Phillies team entirely devoid of the life and passion the team had become known for the last two Octobers. Coming out of their bye, the Phillies faced a New York Mets team on an absolute rampage, who had saved their season in the late summer and catapulted themselves to a Wild Card win over the Brewers. Game one of the series featured a dominant pitching performance by Zach Wheeler and an early blast from Kyle Schwarber to bring the Phillies to a 1-0 lead in Citizens Bank Park. However, an abysmal bullpen performance from Jeff Hofmann undid 7 sterling innings from Wheeler, and the Mets put up 5 runs in the 8th before holding on for a 6-2 win in Philadelphia. Phillies fans were left shocked, as many had assumed that the Mets would be an easy series win before we face the much more intimidating Dodgers. In a must-win game two, the Phils rallied from a 2-0 deficit to take a 7-6 win, thanks to late heroics from Nick Castellanos, Bryce Harper, and Bryson Stott. Suddenly, the city had hope again, and we enjoyed that hope for about two days before the series travelled to Citi Field.
In games 3 and 4 of the series, the Mets proved that it was game 2, not game 1, that was the fluke in this series. Between the two, New York outscored us 11-3, with the Phillies leading for a grand total of 2 innings between the two games. Francisco Lindor played to his massive paycheck, Jose Quintana embarrassed our batters, and the Mets flat out proved that they had the better roster this year. Phillies batters combined for a pathetic .186 batting average, with Harper and Castellanos being the only two players on the team hitting above our regular season team average of .257. In fact, Harper and Castellanos, along with Wheeler, are the only players on the roster who looked like they had any interest in the game through the series. It is clear that the attitude around the ballclub has changed- in our 2022, world series run, the Phillies were a hungry, scrappy team that beat their way through the content giants of the league through sheer momentum. Now, we are on the exact opposite side of that narrative, letting the Mets do to us what we used to do to the Padres and Braves. The city is rightfully furious, and patiently awaits what comes next for the team, and how the club hopes to right the wrongs of the last few years.
Hey, at least the sixers start soon. Nothing could ever go wrong there…
