Despite their warts, the Phillies believe they can be a tough playoff team. It isn’t a delusional notion. They have two frontline starting pitchers, and well, anything can -- and often does -- happen in a short series.
So, less than a week from the trade deadline, the front office will do what it can, within reason, to improve the team’s odds of getting there.
But Tuesday night brought one more reminder of why the Atlanta Braves are a postseason mainstay, to say nothing of the reigning World Series champion, the National League East rabbit that the Phillies seem to be forever chasing.
The Braves brushed off a gut-punch loss Monday night on Bryson Stott’s eighth-inning homer and shut down the Phillies, 6-3, before 27,486 at Citizens Bank Park and behind two rookies, neither of whom were on the World Series roster last year.
Fire-breathing right-hander Spencer Strider unleashed 70 fastballs, most of which ranged from 97 to 99 mph, and dared the Phillies to hit them. They couldn’t. Not much, anyway. They had three hits in six innings, with Kyle Schwarber’s league-leading 31st home run serving as the only reason they didn’t get shut out.
The Braves also knocked around one of those top Phillies starters. Aaron Nola gave up five runs on seven hits, including two homers. One of those came from impressive rookie center fielder Michael Harris II, a jolt of energy since he got called up two months ago.
Harris, who tacked on an RBI double in the ninth inning, made his debut on May 28, two days after the Phillies achieved a split of a four-game series in Atlanta. Since the beginning of June, the Braves are 36-13. It’s a testament to how well they have played that the Phillies are 29-18 since June 1 and still trail the Braves by eight games in the standings.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski noted this week that the team has gotten positive contributions from several young players, particularly Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm, and sometimes Matt Vierling. All have delivered big hits.
But it’s been nothing like Strider and Harris, both of whom may be Rookie of the Year candidates and have made the rich Braves even richer.
The Phillies didn’t have much chance against Strider, whose heater crackled at an average of 98.2 mph. Before Schwarber’s sixth-inning homer, the Phillies’ only two hits were singles by Bohm.
Even after J.T. Realmuto’s garbage-time two-run homer in the ninth inning, it marked the 11th time in 14 games that the Phillies scored less than four runs, the consequence of converging slumps by previously scorching Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins and a season-long power outage from Nick Castellanos, the $100 million slugger who gets booed with each unproductive at-bat.
Harris, meanwhile, helped the Braves build a lead. The No. 9 hitter fouled off a tough two-strike pitch from Nola in the third inning before driving a sinker out to right field to make it 2-0. It was his ninth homer in his 189th career at-bat.
And the Braves kept chugging along.
Nola struggles
The Phillies elected to give Nola extra rest coming out of the All-Star break. He took the mound for the first time in nine days and wasn’t nearly as sharp as usual.
“The pluses are the rest,” interim manager Rob Thomson said before the game, explaining why Nola didn’t start until the fifth game after the break. “And with Noles, he works so hard that I don’t foresee any rust. So, the rest is really [the advantage].”
But Nola allowed five extra-base hits, including Austin Riley’s RBI double in the first inning and Matt Olson’s two-run homer in the fifth.
Bohm alone
Bohm timed up Strider’s fastball for two singles, extending his hitting streak to 11 games. He’s 18-for-36 (.500) during the stretch, part of a 21-game roll in which he’s 32-for-76 (.421).
The problem is, his hot streak has coincided with too many cold spells.
