Are the Phillies mucking through a bad streak or is this the beginning of a devastating collapse?
By Matt Snyder
• 2 min read
Are the Phillies falling apart or is this just a temporary rough patch?
The team that has spent more time at No. 1 this season in the official Power Rankings than any other is in a bad, bad way right now. When they lost two of three to the A's to conclude the first half, it was deservedly met with a collective shoulder shrug. After all, they had just come off a sweep of the Dodgers. No harm in a slight blip. Then they lost two of three to the Pirates coming out of the break. Again, on its own, that isn't the biggest deal in the world. Nor would it have been a huge deal to lose two of three to the Twins or Guardians.
Stringing all these together, though, meant the Phillies were in a slump. Then they got swept by the Yankees and Mariners. They broke their six-game losing streak Sunday and have gone 5-13 since sweeping the Dodgers.
It's funny the extended stretches teams can go through in the same season in this sport. From April 15 through May 23, the Phillies went 29-6. Before Sunday, you could've said "they look like they're never gonna win again." As I've mentioned in here for years, the roller coaster that baseball fans must ride is the toughest in sports.
Something with which Phillies fans can comfort themselves: We've seen a good number of teams go through terrible stretches and make the World Series. Just last year, the Rangers lost 16 of 20 at one point. The 2021 Braves didn't top .500 until August. The Nationals started 19-31 in 2019. The 2018 Dodgers started 16-26. The 2017 Dodgers lost 16 of 17 through late August and early September. The 2016 Cubs lost 15 of 20 toward the end of the first half.
On and on we could go.
Of course, the balance to that is we've also seen teams completely collapse and miss the playoffs. I'll avoid running through that list because those fan bases don't need a refresher and I'm a people pleaser, but they are in the record books.
So, again: Are the Phillies collapsing or just going through a rough patch? Time will tell, of course, but I'm inclined to bet on this being a rough patch. They'll rebound. It might've even started on Sunday.
Of course, it doesn't get any easier this coming week. They'll visit the Dodgers for three and the surging Diamondbacks for four games before returning home.
Biggest Movers
4 Padres
6 Astros
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guardians | The best record in baseball belongs to the Guardians. They just beat the Phillies in a series and split with the Orioles. They are amazing at home and very good on the road. We've seen far too much baseball this season to doubt our eyes with this ballclub. The Guardians are your new No. 1. | 2 | 80-60 |
| 2 | Yankees | Aaron Judge is slugging .694 right now. No one has slugged .700 in a qualifying season since Barry Bonds in 2004. | 3 | 80-60 |
| 3 | Orioles | Jackson Holliday since being called back up: 7 for 18 with a double, two homers and seven RBI in five games. | 1 | 81-60 |
| 4 | Phillies | From the All-Star break through Friday, Bryce Harper lost 30 points of batting average and 83 points of OPS. He went 3 for 4 with a home run on Sunday, so maybe he'll get hot and that will help buoy the offense after this rough stretch. | 3 | 83-56 |
| 5 | Dodgers | Clayton Kershaw's last start was his first in the majors with zero strikeouts (at least in the regular season). He didn't record a strikeout in his catastrophic NLDS Game 1 start last season, either. | 3 | 84-56 |
| 6 | Padres | Jurickson Profar came into this year a career .239/.322/.383 hitter. Now in his age-31 season, he's been a steadying force for the Padres and is slashing .300/.393/.491. He doesn't have the profile of an MVP, but he definitely deserves some down-ballot love and could finish in the top 10. | 4 | 80-61 |
| 7 | Diamondbacks | The D-backs have now won 21 of their last 30 games and the rotation still isn't healthy. | 4 | 79-61 |
| 8 | Royals | Every superlative you can think of: Apply that to Bobby Witt Jr. | 4 | 76-65 |
| 9 | Brewers | In the last month, the Brewers have gone 10-14. The upcoming schedule is relatively difficult too, so it might be a bit worrisome there for the Central leaders. | 3 | 81-59 |
| 10 | Twins | There's something to be said for taking care of business instead of messing around with weak competition, but we've also gotta keep in mind the Twins' record is padded by them having already gone 12-1 against the White Sox. | 3 | 75-64 |
| 11 | Braves | Just when it looked like they were getting hot and would make the Phillies sweat, the Braves dropped two straight to what is left of the Marlins. | 2 | 76-63 |
| 12 | Red Sox | With a 4-2 week, the Red Sox might be back on track. They have a big series starting Monday, too, as they are in Kansas City for three games. The Red Sox trail the Royals by 2 1/2 games for the final wild-card spot. | 1 | 70-70 |
| 13 | Mariners | Winning a series over the Phillies is good and now the Mariners have a workable week with the Tigers and Mets visiting them. Can they build some momentum again? | 2 | 70-70 |
| 14 | Astros | The Astros have now lost five of their last seven games. | 6 | 75-64 |
| 15 | Mets | The Mets have lost five of eight and have fallen to 1 1/2 games out of a playoff spot. The odds feel decent that the Mets hot stretch was just horrible timing for the long-term health of the franchise. They could've sold a ton, but go so close it wasn't a viable plan of action. | 1 | 76-64 |
| 16 | Pirates | Reliever Colin Holderman's last four outings have included three losses, two blown saves and eight runs allowed in 3 1/3 innings. Rough. | -- | 65-74 |
| 17 | Rays | Hard to understand holding Yandy Díaz after dealing the likes of Isaac Paredes and Randy Arozarena. I've been told the Rays front office never makes mistakes, though, so I have no doubt it was the perfect way to play this. | 1 | 69-70 |
| 18 | Giants | Perhaps lost in the shuffle of Blake Snell's no-hitter was that Logan Webb threw a shutout in the Giants' previous game. There have only been 14 individual shutouts this season and the Giants got them in back-to-back games. | 2 | 68-72 |
| 19 | Cardinals | The Brewers are trying to let the Cardinals catch them. The Cardinals just don't seem to want to. They've lost 13 of their last 22. | 2 | 71-69 |
| 20 | Cubs | Taking three of four from the Cardinals was pretty fun, I'm sure, though it should've been a sweep and the Cubs giving the game away on Saturday pretty well summed up the season of underachievement. | 2 | 72-68 |
| 21 | Reds | With two more steals on Sunday, Elly De La Cruz is up to 57 and on pace for 83. MLB hasn't seen a player reach 80 stolen bases since 1988 (Vince Coleman had 81 and Rickey Henderson swiped 93). | 2 | 67-73 |
| 22 | Rangers | Every time they get hot, they follow up with a rough patch and give it all back. They're back to six games under .500. While a turnaround remains possible, it just doesn't feel like a run is happening this year. | 3 | 67-73 |
| 23 | Tigers | They've lost six of seven. | 2 | 70-70 |
| 24 | Blue Jays | The Jays have only finished in last place twice this millennium (2004 and 2013). We're headed toward No. 3 in a season in which they expected to make the playoffs. | -- | 67-74 |
| 25 | Nationals | Last Sunday, the Nats lost via walk-off. On Monday, they lost via walk-off again. On Tuesday, they lost 17-0, the worst loss in franchise history. Man, that's quite a lot of anguish in three days. | -- | 62-77 |
| 26 | Angels | Even if we aren't supposed to be surprised by the Mike Trout news, it's still devastating. | 1 | 58-81 |
| 27 | Athletics | Brent Rooker hit his 28th homer of the season on Sunday. Could he get to 40? The team list of 40-homer seasons has Jimmie Foxx, Gus Zernial, Reggie Jackson, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Jason Giambi and Khris Davis. | 1 | 61-79 |
| 28 | Marlins | It was a seller's market and the Marlins are terrible, so they sold their butts off. And they are now 3-2 since the deadline! | -- | 52-87 |
| 29 | Rockies | The Rockies won three straight road games at one point last week. My faith in humanity has been shaken. The Road Rockies are a Power Rankings institution of futility. I guess I can take solace in the fact that they went 3-7 on the full road trip. They just happened to stack their wins together. | -- | 51-89 |
| 30 | White Sox | This is just remarkable. They won their division by 13 games just three years ago. | -- | 32-109 |
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