The Philadelphia Phillies entered the month of September in a solid spot as the second National League Wild Card team, leading the Padres by half a game and the Brewers by 3.5 games. All they really needed to do to see October baseball was avoid another complete meltdown in September.
And … you’ll never guess what has happened! The Phillies have had a complete meltdown in September.
In a Thursday matinee game with the already-eliminated Chicago Cubs, the Phillies dropped their fifth straight game in a 2-0 loss. It was their second five-game losing streak of the month in what has been a 3-10 slide the past couple weeks. With Thursday’s loss, the Phillies dropped into a tie with the Brewers for the final Wild Card spot, and it wasn’t difficult to spot what has been going wrong for the Phillies. Pretty much everything has:
Brandon Marsh appears to be camped under a ball but it lands right in front of him, leading to a run for the Cubs pic.twitter.com/vbRmYzJcWB
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) September 29, 2022
Though defense has been a struggle for much of the season — at least on the easy plays — their bats have suddenly gone ice cold despite Bryce Harper’s return to the lineup. In this three-game series with the Cubs, they only managed three runs.
The NBC Sports Philadelphia crew was not taking this looming collapse well.
— Absolutely Hammered (@AH_Pod) September 29, 2022
Phillies fans were also in meltdown mode.
This was how Twitter reacted
It was fun while it lasted… pic.twitter.com/t0onEGjCw9
— Phillies Muse (@Phillies_Muse) September 29, 2022
The Phillies are a decades-old psychological experiment designed to see how much madness a group of people can tolerate that's about to reach its gruesome end
— Jon Tayler, Top 0.1% On OnlyJons (@JATayler) September 29, 2022
The Phillies are really going to do this again, aren’t they?
— Jon Marks (@JonMarksMedia) September 29, 2022
Phillies W-L after August:
2022 (10-14)
2021 (14-16)
2020 (13-17)
2019 (12-16)
2018 (8-20)This makes me sad.
— Paul Hembekides (@PaulHembo) September 29, 2022
The Phillies go into a must-win September series with Wheeler, Nola, and Suarez on the mound.
They get swept by the 67-86 Cubs. They scored a total of 3 runs. Playoff lead gone.
A complete disaster. Losing culture.
— Life of a Philly Fan (@PhillyFanLife) September 29, 2022
The Phillies went 1-15 vs the Rangers (66-88), Cubs (70-86), and Giants (77-78) this season.
— Austin Krell (@NBAKrell) September 29, 2022
The Phillies are absolutely embarrassing.
— Joe Giglio (@JoeGiglioSports) September 29, 2022
The Phillies are literally trying to give the Brewers a Wild Card spot.
Yikes https://t.co/JU0y9VvYUZ
— Reviewing the Brew (@ReviewngTheBrew) September 29, 2022
sickly thankful that the Phillies are dragging me up a mountain of knives before I can convince my lumpy leaking brain it’s the Sixers year
— Michael Levin (@Michael_Levin) September 29, 2022
Final two weeks of season, controlling own fate to return to postseason, Phillies have lost 5 in a row, 10 of 13. Historic collapse.
— Jon Johnson (@jonjohnsonwip) September 29, 2022
Summary of this week: pic.twitter.com/nxoUTLNpRv
— Phillies Muse (@Phillies_Muse) September 29, 2022
Phillies chilling in Cancun again this year pic.twitter.com/Gq19Vbgaxu
— Vin. (@franky_lindor) September 29, 2022
The Phillies really do hate September.