Philadelphia Phillies learn tough lessons against Milwaukee Brewers

The Philadelphia Phillies were in the midst of a 3-8 slide in their last 11 games entering their weekend series with the Milwaukee Brewers.

As Cliff Lee once quipped, that’s baseball. The Philadelphia Phillies are experiencing all that comes with an absolutely brutal June schedule, as the Milwaukee Brewers showed them little mercy in a tough three-game series, where they won two of three in dominant fashion.

The Phillies were outscored by a combined total of 27-10 as the Brewers scored 12 runs in each of the first two games. Philadelphia came back on Sunday and took the third game 4-3 thanks to Zach Eflin’s gritty performance. But make no mistake,  the first two games were the kind that made you long for some kind of mercy rule.

Things have somewhat come unraveled for the Phillies of late, as the daunting June schedule that was sure to test their mettle has done that and more.

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The feeling was that the Phillies had overachieved just a bit in April and May, but the way they started the season created plenty of excitement and reasons to believe that the rebuild had progressed a lot faster than expected.

The series against the Brewers served as a harsh wake-up call and taught the young Phillies some tough lessons. For one thing, they are not quite ready to compete with the best teams in baseball.

The Brewers currently sit atop the National League at 39-26 and have four players hitting over .275. They put on a hitting clinic against the Phillies on Friday and Saturday. Good teams hit when they need to, and Milwaukee is a team that can hit up and down the lineup. The Phillies’ bats, on the other hand, have been rather cold. They had 11 hits all series and are hitting .230 as a team.

Philadelphia learned some things about themselves during this recent stretch of games. They learned that things may get worse before they get better. In the coming weeks they will face the Brewers again, then the New York Yankees, Washington Nationals, and St. Louis Cardinals.

They learned that shooting yourself in the foot is not a strategy that will help them win games. It seems like the Phillies have been doing almost everything they can do to lose games lately, especially this recent series against the Brewers. There were runs walked in, batters getting hit, pinch-hit grand slams, comical defensive errors, and the absolute disappearance of clutch hitting with runners in scoring position.

These issues cannot continue, even for a young rebuilding team like the Phillies. At some point they must learn from their mistakes.

It can be frustrating to watch a team struggle with so many self inflicted wounds, but it is important to remember that this rebuild is going to require patience. The Phillies are far and away the youngest team in the league. They are currently playing their future second baseman at shortstop, while their future shortstop gets reps in at third. They have a rookie manager. This is very much a process, and what we are seeing right now is the painful, learning experience aspect of that process.

However, there are plenty of reasons for optimism. This team does possess some exciting young talent. Scott Kingery, despite playing out of position, looks every bit the part at shortstop. With J.P. Crawford back, the defense should get better. Rhys Hoskins belted a homer in his return, and the pitching continues to carry the team. This is a squad that when it finally matures, could really be something watch in the next 1-2 years. It is absolutely not the time to panic.

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The series against the Brewers was only one of many, but hopefully this Phillies team will look back on it as a turning point. Very rarely do teams go from 66 wins to division winners the next year. Baseball is not that generous, and both the players and fans need to remember that when it comes to Philadelphia.