Phillies FLAT vs Mets After All-Star Break

The Phillies went into the All-Star break clearly running on fumes, but their opening series out of the break left a lot to be desired by losing two of three to the Mets. #RingTheBell #PhiladelphiaPhillies #MLBonX

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:23

What's going on, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome into another episode of the 6ix10 Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Hollihan. We're back here on this Monday afternoon. We're just a couple hours away from the start of what will be a three-game series between the Phillies and the Dodgers. We'll put that on the back burner. Obviously, as we do, we'll talk about that series coming up in a moment. But of course, right out of the All-Star Break, and what do you know? Same old Phillies coming out of the All-Star Break. It's interesting. You know, you talk about kind of the fact that the Phillies have made the postseason the last four years, but if you go back and look, coming out of the All-Star Break, and it's not even like they were facing the game's toughest teams in that season, the Phillies always tend to struggle out of the gates. And I'm not making it an excuse for this series against the Mets. I think we all were hoping, because let's face it, Rob Thompson was the manager for those previous seasons. And you thought, well, you know, surely different, you know, interim, different messaging, so on and so forth, maybe things will be different. Not the case, as the Phillies lose two of three to the New York Mets. And doing so in fashion that they ended the first half of the year on. You know, the Phillies started to show a little consistency towards the that the July 4th weekend when they, you know, took game one against the Royals. It kind of felt like, okay, you know, they're gonna end this, you know, final road trip off on a high note. And they didn't I mean, you know, they took they took a positive record off of that road trip. They were five and four, but as I mentioned multiple times, they needed to go six and three. They needed to go seven and two for you to really sit there and say, Man, I feel really good about this road trip. Sure, you took two of three in your final two series, but the offense never seemed to click. Now, at one point it looked like it did, but they needed to, in those final two games in Detroit, just to have a positive record coming out of that road trip, they needed to win those final two games. In order to not completely embarrass yourself heading into the All-Star break, you had to win those final two games. You had to dig deep to do so. You shouldn't need to do that against the competition they were facing. I'm sorry, but you shouldn't. And then you look at coming out and against the New York Mets in game one of this series between the Phillies and Mets. Yeah, you're facing a solid young pick pitcher in Christian Scott, but he's not that good yet to where he should be blanking the offense that the Phillies have put together, what we are led to believe he should not for five and two-thirds of a game be that good enough to blank him. The only reason why he only went five and two-thirds is because for whatever reason they capped him at 79 pitches. Why they capped him at 79 pitches is beyond me. Uh, I mean, I guess that's the whole adegy of facing the order three times through. Um I was l I just wanted to double check. I don't know if it was the air quality as well. Remember, last Thursday was pretty porous air quality, uh, that orange haze. But regardless, he's not that good. Not yet. Is he a good young starting pitcher? Yes. Do we want him to be? No. We obviously would love it if he turned out to be, you know, a a total uh total bum in Queens, but that just doesn't look like it's gonna be the case. Now Aaronola went out there and had a good game going for his sake, for his numbers, for his numbers, he he allowed just one run through six innings, and then they put him back out there for the seventh. And listen, I'm not gonna Monday morning quarterback and say, well, he shouldn't have gone out at all for the No. He earned the right in that game to go out for the seventh. The only problem is he's the type of guy where you start an inning going, all right, you're gonna go out there. We need someone up. He gets into traffic, he he allows one base runner who's the who is the best bullpen arm we have, not named Johan Duran with inherited runners on base. And I'm not putting that game on Aaronola. Number one, he shouldn't have faced Alvarez. Mattingley should have pulled him after Beatty hit the solo home run. He should have pulled him then, should have had someone in there, said, All right, Nola, you're done. We're going to the pen. Regardless, because he hasn't earned the right. It's not Zach Wheeler getting upset there in the fifth inning with runners on, feeling he's deserving of getting out of that situation from what he's done this year and throughout his career. Nola has not ever earned that. There was maybe a point in time where you'd consider it. Now, no, he's gone. The first sign of trouble, you pull him out of that game. Everyone in the Delaware Valley that follows the Phillies knows that that's what should happen. Don't tell me that, oh, well, had he pulled him and then the next guy came in. Enough. He's done. Because then he gives up the second one and it's three to nothing. Now, in the meantime, the offense was pathetic. Again, only three hits off Christian Scott and five and ten. They only had one other hit in the game, and it was the home run off Weaver for Trey Turner. And I mean, come on. First game off of the all-star break, and it's that bad. And you know what? You can sit there and talk about, well, the the Hayes and the whatever about the day and this, that, and the thing. I don't want to hear it. And I'm not saying anyone said that, but if that's the excuse people are going to take now. They didn't get runners in scoring position, didn't get guys on base enough. They were bad. They were bad. Uh, I thought that they didn't work Christian Scott enough. I didn't think that they were uh hitting balls hard enough. I didn't think they were squaring up his pitches, they were not for the standard that they should have for themselves, they did not do a good job living up to it. And you could see this coming from a mile away, though. When we went over this starting pitching preview, I'm pretty sure I sat here and said, I don't think that this is going to end well for the Phillies because you have one starter that you have that you feel confident in in these matchups, facing Scott McLean, and that's Jesus Lazardo. And Saturday, Lazardo, you know what? Maybe he didn't have his best stuff, but he blanked the Mets or kept them at bay through five innings. Gave up a run on two hits, seven strikeouts, two free passes, limited damage. Uh the Phillies got it started with the Kyle Schwarber two-run blast. Then Trey Turner adds on with the solo homer after the Mets. Uh Tyrone Taylor made it a one-run game in the second. Phillies finally answering the bottom of the fifth. Then Alec Boehm comes through on the RBI single, 4-1. Harper, two-run single, 6-1. And you know what? Good for you. You got to Sean Minai and you got to Cody Senga. Congratulations. Uh, there are a lot of lineups in Major League Baseball that can get to those two guys. That's a ho-hum. Good job. You got to that guy. You were supposed to. If you didn't, I would really have to question whether or not some of those guys in the lineup should be there the next day. I gotta tell you. Because you should be able to solve that, those two starters or pitchers. And Sangha's just, I mean, his career looks like it might be shot. Sunday, yesterday, uh, you sat there going, man, it's a rubber match with Alan Ronhell and Nolan McLean. McLean, one of the best young starting pitchers in the game. And what happened was the Mets getting to you early up 5-0 and just gave McLean a lead that he could just cruise. And you know how, like, when you give Zach Wheeler an early lead and Christopher Sanchez an early lead, they cruise. He cruised. Now, at a certain point, I would think once it starts to, you know, you're around the fourth or fifth, and you're like, hey, this is still a 5-0 game. We still have a chance here to do something. You that offense should be able to go out there and at least put something together. More than just six hits. I'll tell you. More than just six hits. Now, granted, I know I just said all that about McLean, but at a certain point, you have to sit there as an offense and say, man, he's getting us, he being Ron Hell, he's getting us to a point where this isn't a laugher. We gotta go out there and figure out a way to solve their pitchers. And the Phil, you know what? And the Phillies never did that. They never figured out McLean. I don't know what they do in that dugout, but they never figured him out. Congrats to Alec Bohm getting to AJ Minor, but uh just a pathetic performance. And I'm obviously being sarcastic when I say congrats to Bohm. Uh just a pathetic performance from the Phillies offense, and really pathetic performance in the first series to open up the All-Star break. Because here's what you have in front of you you got the Dodgers for three games, then you welcome in the Yankees. So you got the National League's best, the American League's best. Now, you'll you I mean, I can't imagine Aaron Judge coming back. I feel pretty confident and saying he's not going to be back for that series this weekend. He's not going to be back anytime soon for the Yankees, I don't imagine. But I had hoped Shohei Otani also wouldn't be available. Turns out, obviously, he is coming out of the All-Star break. So you catch a break maybe with the Yankees and not having to face Judge, still not going to matter. That's still a dangerous lineup. But you face the Dodgers now for what's in front of you these next three games. I mean, I know you got Sanchez going, you got Wheeler going. That's fine. The offense has to figure out a way to solve the opposition starters. Now, on losing two of three, and especially the rubber match yesterday, here was Don Madding.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

You know, getting down five early, you know, with that their guy on the mound today who was good. You know, it puts you in a tough spot. You're not just gonna it's not one of those guys you're gonna feel like, okay, we're into you know, situation, let's run this guy out of the game, you know, start chipping away. We don't we weren't really able to chip away. So yeah, a little bit, right? Because you feel like you just gotta keep us in the game, but then we get he gives us a couple zeros, you know, third and a four. I think Maze gets one in the fifth. And really it it feels like kind of all day or kind of out of it. We they had they had guys all over the place. We were able to get out of some stuff to keep the game in some sort of check where if we could have a big inning in there somewhere uh and get ourselves back in it, but we just weren't able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

You know what? The one the one thing you say about the Phillies and their offense, and we'll get to some comments here in a moment from Alec Bohm that'll just make your head turn. When you look at it right now, you've got three hitters all year, all lefties, by the way, that have actually given you consistency. Brandon Marsh was on fire the first half, and I know people are really down on Brandon Marsh. Listen, you follow this game long enough, eventually you're gonna get cold. The problem is he is ice cold right now, and they need to solve that matter. But you've had him, you've had Bryce Harper, and you've had Kyle Schwarber. If any one of those guys is as Marsh is right now cold, no one else can pick them up. Stott's been hitting better and better, and I think we're finally at the point to where we're over 250 as a batting average for him out and up 248. He was at 249 the other day, 248. But he's a table setter. He's not someone that's going to drive in a plethora of runs like Marsh can. Bohm can drive in runs. Problem is he's been just a shill this year, and especially this past month, he's been really brutal. Trey Turner hasn't been able to find any kind of consistency at all. Remember last year how it was Trey Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and then Harper, or at certain points, you know, it was kind of like they would take turns. JT would get going, Marsh eventually got red hot. There were moments with Castellanos, not many, but there were moments. It was guys were taking turns off of it. Guys aren't taking turns right now. They're just not the lineup itself, it can for maybe a series. And it looked like at one point in July they were starting to come around, but when they get caught, man, there is no one that can just give them a little bit of something. And the one problem is, even if they find it, even if they find the offense for a night, are you confident that the bullpen's gonna come in and get you nine outs and get you twelve outs without giving up a lead. Now the Phillies just called up Alex McFarlane today, the number 17th prospect in their minor league system. There's talks about Gage Wood. We'll see if they do really rush him. I mean, McFarlane, who's been, you know, getting a ton of buzz about you know the way he's pitched in the minor leagues. There's been a lot of hope that, you know, he could solve the issues that have been there as the fourth round pick back in 2022 by the Phillies. Um has a 286 or 206, I beg your pardon, two oh six ERA this year in the minors in 32 games. Uh naturally, you're gonna get a look as uh he has earned himself that look down in Reading this season. Um has had, I mean, really, when you look at the last couple years, though, he's found something this year, 206 ERA. Last year when he first got to Reading in four games, he allowed seven runs, or I'm sorry, four runs on seven hits. Now, in every stop he's had, if you look, now granted, they started him off as a starter, then they turn him in this year, he's really been coming out of the bullpen, but he has struggled to adjust to the hitting he's faced at every level. So it's not like this guy's gonna come in and immediately, oh, he's pitching the eighth, he's pitching the seventh. He's gonna pitch in some low-leverage situations to start. And I'll tell you one thing, they put him, they throw him to the Wolves against the Dodgers, he's gonna get crushed, could kill his confidence. So don't make the mistake of thinking, man, they're just gonna put him, you know, right up against it to start. That's probably not gonna happen. But as we draw nearer and nearer to the trade deadline, I'm telling you, it's becoming increasingly obvious as to the two main situations the Phillies need, and they were really on display against the Mets. Well, one more so than the other. You still need a right-handed bat. People are saying that's not an important spot that you need a right-handed bat. You gotta add a bullpen arm, although everyone's gonna be looking for bullpen arms. And now that the Red Sox are starting to get, you know, they're coming on, obviously. The highest team of Major League Baseball, a roll des Chapman's not gonna be available, most likely. So Dave Dombrowski is gonna have to figure out a way to help this bullpen. That's why they're calling up McFarlane. I think that could be a reason why they call up Gage Wood. So that's obviously going to reveal itself when we hit August 3rd and we see where everyone's at or leading into August 3rd. But then the other thing, you have to add you gotta get some type of a starter out there. You gotta figure out a way because Ron Hell's not really ready. You know, you need to figure out a way to get someone that can help you get to the postseason. Because as people are saying, you know, you talk about postseason, postseason, postseason. Listen, they gotta make sure they get to the postseason. There are three games to the good for the second spot in the wild card. Okay, fine. They're three back of the Braves in the NL East. But with the way they're going, it's time to turn it on, or else we'll be all watching, including the players, the postseason from the couch. Now, we talk about the offense, and here was Alec Boehm's response yesterday after the game against the Mets as to what the Philly's struggles have been with the inconsistency in the offense.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

A lot of it's guess got to do with how tough the pitching's gotten in this league, I think. You know, when you you can really run into some some teams with some tough bullpins and some tough just they can match up well and just like I mean it seems like you can go through some some games where you see just three guys throwing a hundred and from both sides and moving the ball around, and then you know sometimes you can wait those guys out and get some pitches in the middle and do something with them, and sometimes they end up just kind of dominating you and making pitches, and you know it can be tough, but I think uh you know, for the most part, obviously some days more than that, we kind of do our best to grind the grind the starters out of the game when, you know, they have their good stuff and try to see a few extra pitches and try to, you know, put good at bats on guys, but you know, today it's wasn't wasn't really one of those days.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

That is the worst excuse you can ever give me. That's pathetic. That is a pathetic excuse about the fact that the pitching in the majors has gotten better. You guys are paid enough money. You guys have all the veteran presence in the world, you've been here long enough. You guys aren't young players. This isn't pitching you haven't seen before. Although half the time, when it is pitching you haven't seen before, you still struggle. That's not an excuse you can use. You have to be able to solve said starting pitcher out on the mound. You have to be able to, when you have your starter out there shoving through six innings, giving up one run, when he has an ERA of over five all year, you have to win that game for him. And they don't do that. They didn't do it Thursday. They didn't even try on Sunday, they just rolled over and died. It's and I don't want to hear about guys are throwing a hundred, guys are enough. That's been the case for how long? It's not Mizorowski you're facing every single time. Is McLean good? Yes, McLean's good. Does Christian Scott have potential? Absolutely. But you guys get paid enough money. You guys are here's the other thing. This is where it comes back to the leadership in that dugout and the leadership in that clubhouse. At a certain point, you gotta sit there and say, you know what? Screw this. We're not just gonna have chalk it up like it's a mid-April game as, oh, that's just baseball, we don't have it today. Go out there and win the damn game. Because we're at the point in the year where every game now gets magnified. And you see what's coming in in the Dodgers. You take that approach against the Dodgers, you're getting embarrassed for the next three games. You take that approach against the Yankees, you're getting embarrassed for the for the weekend. And this first ten games or whatever it is out of the All-Star Break, people are gonna be going, when does when do the Eagles training can't when does the Eagles training camp begin? How many days do we have until the 28th? How many days do we have until week one? Because they are gonna turn on them like a top if if they cannot figure it out. I'm telling you, they will. And then August 3rd deadline? Please. At a certain point it'll be i you know what? Is it worth is it are they able to be saved? Is it worth it if they're just gonna go into the postseason against competition like this and get killed? That's what it comes down to. Now I don't think they do that because I think, you know, they they won a championship. The owner wants a championship. I think the players won a championship, although I I I mean, you know, the way they the way you play against the Mets, the way you play against the Royals in the back half of the all you know, leading up to the All Star break. You kidding me? Is everyone bought into this thing? Now the Rodgers series. Christopher Sanchez will take the mound tonight. He's 11-4 with a 2-6-2 ERA. You know the numbers. But you saw the way he pitched coming down the stretch. And then you saw the way he pitched that one inning in the All-Star game. Now it's the All-Star game. I want to chalk it up as that, but there's going to be a lot of people going, man, should he have even pitched in the All-Star game if it was going to end up maybe hurting him even more? He's 2-0 with a 3-4-4 ERA versus the Dodgers and six starts in his career. That also includes postseason. He's gone into the sixth in each start. He's 1-0 with a 4-1-5 ERA versus the Dodgers, including the postseason start, and he's 7-1 with an 0-8-6 ERA at home this year. Now, that ERA at home, I'm going to tell you right now, it's going up. I'll give you free advice here on this one. His ERA for the season tonight goes up. His ERA at home goes up. Against the Dodgers, goes up. They're going to figure him out. They just will. You can bet your bot, unless, hey, if he actually manages to shut him out, good on you. But it's going to be tough. Emmett Sheehan's going to start for the Dodgers. He's 4-6 with a 4-8-1 ERA. 3-1-2 ERA versus the Phillies in three appearances in his career. He allowed a run on two hits in two innings versus the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in the postseason last year's lone time pitching against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. You know what? At this point, with the way they played against the Mets, and especially I think sometimes they see a Jersey number, and it's like, oh no, we're going up against the big bad Dodgers. You can throw the numbers away. I think when they go up against some of these starters. Game two is Zach Wheeler. 10-1 with the 2-1-3 ERA. Allowed four runs on five hits in six innings versus the Dodgers earlier in the season. 4-0 with a 2-7-6 ERA at home this year in six starts. Eric Lowers on the mound for LA. Four and five with a 484 ERA. Now here's the thing about him, because you're licking your chops at that. Well, that looks good. He's a left-hander. In one start and one appearance against the Phillies, he is never allowed a run in 10 innings. He's allowed five hits, struck out 15 and 2 walks. In 22, he struck out 13 as he went six shutout innings at Citizens Bank Park. Let's and let's be honest here. There are a couple guys. There's only about two of them that he didn't face that are on that Phillies team right now. Gene Segura and Nick Castellanos. Brason Stott was on that roster, although Didi Gregorius probably did start in that game. Obviously Bohm was there. JT, Harper, Schwerber, Turner was not. Marsh wasn't there yet. But so actually about half of the half of the starting lineup he saw that night. And uh, because Odubo Herrera was at that time playing center field while Brandon Marsh was with the Angels still. Um and again, he's a lefty. The Phillies can't hit lefties. The funny thing is, right-handed bats, traditionally, baseball wisdom tells you righties should hit lefties. They should be the guys in the lineup that's able to hit a left-handed pitcher. This is how you know the Phillies' righties have stunked this year. They can't solve left-handed pitching. And then game three, Aaron Nola, three and seven with a five-eight six ERA, one and three with a four-nine six ERA and six starts versus the Dodgers. Now, in each regular season start, he's gone six complete innings. He's gone into the seventh and a couple starts. He's 0-3 with the 6-5-0 ERA at home this year. Um, you know, you're throwing one to the Wolves in this one because then Justin Robleski's on the mound for the Dodgers. Left-handed pitcher, 10-2 with the 2-6-9 ERA. Last time the Phillies saw him was in June, where he allowed just one run on a hit in seven innings. Uh 6-1 with a 3-0 ERA on the road this year in nine starts. So I think Wednesday we've already said, you know what, that's a loss already. Tonight and tomorrow is your best chance to get the Dodgers. Best chance to win this series and put Nola out there with the chance to sweep. I mean, the starting pitching I can't lie. I can be as pessimistic as possible at the way they're going right now, but the Phillies do hold the advantage in the starting pitching department. The only problem is can the offense figure out the Dodgers? For the last 24 plus hours, the only thing they should have been doing right now while the Dodgers were finishing up their series and the Bronx, studying Sheehan. Everything they can do to study this guy tonight and figure out a way to hit him, that has to be the main priority for today. Because you gotta go out there and put up at least five runs on these guys. If you don't, I said this last year in the postseason. If you don't, they're gonna come back and win the game. Especially when you look at the Phillies bullpen. So we'll see what they do. We'll see what they do. Thanks everyone for tuning in. We'll be back on throughout the series potentially, but of course we'll be back on to recap it and get ready for when the Yankees come to town. We'll talk to you later.