PHILADELPHIA — On the eve of the most important game as Phillies manager, Joe Girardi lost his best all-around player for three months to a fractured finger. Seventy minutes before the game, he lost the reigning MVP as a late scratch due to forearm soreness in a right arm that has a torn elbow ligament. Whatever Girardi did to anger baseball’s gods, it must’ve been exceptionally wicked.
All of this came on the heels of a five-game losing streak, the last three of which they’d lost in extra innings, which left his foundering bullpen in tatters. They’d also lost seven of their last eight, four of those in their last at-bat.
They’d lost magnificently. They’d lost excruciatingly. They’d lost ugly.
