Philadelphia Phillies: Offensive slump threatens playoff push

The Philadelphia Phillies continue their remarkable turnaround season, but their most recent offensive slump has fans and experts questioning whether or not the team can right the ship in time.

It seemed like things were going just about as smooth as anyone could have hoped for. The Philadelphia Phillies were double-digit games over .500, hadn’t lost a series since the before the All-Star break, and seemed poised to run the table en route to their first playoff appearance since 2012.

Then things got a little weird.

It started with a series against the Cincinnati Reds at the tail end of July. This was a series that seemed innocuous on paper, as the Reds had been one of the worst teams in baseball for most of the season, but the Phillies stumbled, losing three out of the four games. For the most part, fans and experts shrugged. After all, the law of averages and history says you can’t win them all in a 162 game season.

The Phils rebounded by taking an exciting game from the Boston Red Sox at Fenway and then sweeping the Miami Marlins in dominant fashion. But that’s where the offense seemed to fall off a cliff.

Over the last 7 games, the Phillies have scored a combined 16 runs. They lost two of three at Arizona, two of three at San Diego, and lost what was a tie game heading into the final frames against the Red Sox when Phillies reliever Tommy Hunter gave up a pinch-hit home run. Despite that pitching mistake, Hunter can’t exactly shoulder the blame for the Phillies’ ineptitude on offense, which appears to be snowballing and costing them games.

Rhys Hoskins got the Phillies on board against the Red Sox on Tuesday night, but the lone home run bomb was not enough. Boston’s Rick Porcello stifled the Phillies offense, forcing 13 strikeouts. Of the last seven games, The Phillies scored two runs or less in four of them. They were shut out twice. While there are plenty of games left to play, the team needs to rediscover how to get on base and fast.

According to Matt Gelb of the Athletic, The Phillies are averaging just over three runs a game at 3.06. But if you remove the four-game sweep against the Marlins, that number drops to 2.17.

The bottom line is that the Phillies’ best players need to step up and be the best players. They are hitting just .234 as a team, which is only slightly better than the lowly Mets. The hits just haven’t been there since the All-Star-Break. They need more from everybody.

Carlos Santanna, while not having a bad season, needs to be better. His average is a paltry .214. Odubel Hererra needs to be better. He continues to guess at the plate at seemingly the worst times. Hoskins needs to be better. Before last night’s home run, Hoskins was one for his last 28. That is brutal.

The pitching will give this team a chance to win every night, but unless they can find a way to manufacture more than two runs per game, they may end up watching October baseball from home.

Baseball is a funny game. It’s a long season, and these types of stretches can happen to even the best teams. A hallmark of this Phillies team this season has been that they have shown a penchant for rebounding after tough losses. This is quite possibly the worst stretch of baseball that the Phillies have played all season, and they are still only two games back.

That is still a tough pill to swallow considering that they sat in first place just a few days ago, but this playoff race is likely just heating up. This Phillies team continues to display toughness and a never say die attitude. That will serve them well moving forward, but they may want to put some of that attitude and energy into producing runs while this division is still within their grasp.