That Phillies Collapse Was the Worst Philadelphia Sports Loss of My Life, and It Doesn’t Feel Particularly Close
After sleeping on it, the reality has sunk in that this was the worst Philadelphia sports loss in our lifetime. In actuality, it wasn’t even an overreaction to believe that statement in the moment and it only becomes more and more evident as you sit with the stunning reality that the Phillies season is over. We’ve seen some brutal Philly sports losses, there is plenty of competition. Hell, there is a lot of competition for worst loss THIS CALENDAR YEAR. But nothing, absolutely nothing, compares to this.
Takeaways from Game 7 That We Will Think About Forever:
REALMUTO SINGLE: In the 5th inning, Bryson Stott doubled home Alec Bohm to give the Phillies their first lead at 2-1. The next pitch is a JT Realmuto single. Why they didn’t send Stott home I’ll never know. Yes, he had to delay himself to make sure the ball wasn’t caught but the outfield arms for Arizona are sub-bar. The lack of aggression in a key moment was stunning. And it’s not just being wildly aggressive in a key moment to steal the game, it was the smart play too. You had runners on the corners, but for the bottom of the lineup. The guy coming to the plate was 0 for his last 19, and he wasn’t even the guy in the lineup batting .085 this postseason. Not recognizing time and place and why it would’ve been the green light time to send the runner is aggravating. The DBacks stole 8 bases in the final two games. They pressed the issue and they won because of it. That was the moment for the Phillies to press the issue and they played it scared and dumb. Sure, when the Eagles went for it on 4th Down on the negative side of the 50 in Super Bowl 52, it would’ve stung if they didn’t get it. But it would sting less knowing they went all out to win.
TREA BUNT: Why is a $300 million player bunting with no outs after a leadoff double? After a Schwarber leadoff double, you have the heart of your lineup coming up and you’re asking Trea Turner to bunt. It’s Game 7 with a World Series on the line. If you don’t trust him in that moment, what was any of this for? Regardless, the move may have worked to get Schwarber to 3rd because Bryce launched one to the warning track next at-bat…but Turner couldn’t even get the bunt down.
HARPER SWING OF HIS LIFE PART 2: Touched on this on the previous point, but Bryce Harper almost duplicated the swing of his life after that Schwarber lead-off double. Missed it by half an inch off the bat. He also had a ball hit 106mph off the bat that was caught by Tommy Pham in what may have been the least athletic play in baseball history. Sometimes, it’s not your night. Sometimes, that night is when you are one win away from the World Series.
There Is No Recovering For How the Series Played Out Over the Final 5 Games:
They went to Arizona up 2-0 in the series after demolishing this DBacks team in Game 2. Then, they blew leads in back to back games. AND still after all that had two chances to clinch at home where they hadn’t lost yet this postseason…and didn’t get it done. It is unfathomable. They scored 3 runs in the final 18 innings. They held leads in 6 of the 7 games. We will ask ourselves “how did they lose that series” from now until we are 80 years old. But it’s hard to foresee making it to age 80 if in one calendar year you watch: your football team blow a 10 point lead in the Super Bowl, your basketball team blow a 3-2 series lead, and your baseball team blow a 3-2 series lead.
Craig Kimbrel:
Anyone who watches this Phillies team religiously has known since mid-June that Craig Kimbrel having to get outs in high leverage situations would eventually be their demise. It’s not even accurate to say they were playing with fire, they had been actively burnt to the third degree multiple times with him (Giants loss, Angels loss). They barely escaped a full fire explosion on a 3-2 count, bases loaded pitch to Ronald Acuna. They did not survive it in Game 4 of the NLCS. That game will sting way more than Game 7 ever will. They were up 5-2 on the road, stormed back in that game and had their foot on the throats of that entire stadium. Late in the game up 3 with a chance to take a 3-1 series lead, Zack Wheeler on the mound the following day. And Kimbrel couldn’t get outs. He gave up a game-tying splash shot home run to Alek Thomas who was batting under .200. Many people have compared this playoff series to the Sixers/Hawks fiasco. Well, that was your baseball version of blowing a 25 point lead in the 4th quarter.
Every high leverage reliever can do one of two things: throw at a high velocity topping out 98-100mph that is hard to speed your bat up to OR command the plate with movement on your pitches. Kimbrel does neither. He is constantly behind in counts and his only hope is that a batter bails him out by flailing at a knuckle curve. After the Phils lost in the World Series a year ago, they made it a point of emphasis to replicate what the Astros were doing in their bullpen. It doesn’t matter how much firepower your lineup has if a bullpen has the depth and the firepower to match it. Safe to assume the Phillies will be back to that point of emphasis this offseason.
The Big Money Falls Short:
People will read that last part and comment “you can’t blame one guy! The offense was silent! You pay Harper, Turner and the rest of those guys so much money and they couldn’t hit”. First off, yes you fucking can blame one person if that one person is Craig Kimbrel who blew multiple leads on the road in this series. We aren’t even talking about a Game 7 if it weren’t for him. But yeah, the big money guys didn’t come through. Harper didn’t have a hit the last two games. Some of those Trea at-bats were just painful, like watching him pre-ovation. Castellanos was beyond dreadful. It was stunning. The game ended in the 7th inning when Turner and Harper came up with two runners on with one out and did nothing with it.
Good Baseball Teams Do the Little Things:
People always question why the Phillies can go through these surprising slumps where the offense is dormant across the board. Well, they’ve never really been a good small ball team. The DBacks stole 8 bases in 2 games including 4 successful attempts in Game 7. Then they drove those runners in. The Phillies finished 1-11 with RISP and that one hit didn’t even score anybody. They batted .183 with RISP for the series. They didn’t execute well on offense if the ball wasn’t landing 10 rows deep in the stands. That’s always been the case with them.
From Being the Team of Destiny to Playing Against the Team of Destiny:
The next pitch after Alec Bohm’s home run, Bryson Stott sent one 390 feet to dead center for an out. Bryce Harper had one off his bat 106mph that was caught and that wasn’t even his home run attempt that died at the warning track. Meanwhile, Corbin Carroll came around to score the games first run on an infield single on a ball as Bob Wankle pointed out, had a .100 avg chance of being a hit. It sucks being on the other side of the Team of Destiny.
Johan Rojas:
Not sure where the moment would have been to plug in Christian Pache, but now seems like a massive oversight to not play him. He hit well in the Wild Card series. He drew a crucial walk last night. Johan Rojas was just absolutely helpless at the plate this postseason and batted sub .100. It was like watching old school National League baseball where the Phillies played 8 on 9 and the pitcher had to hit. The kid will be good, he was awesome at Reading. He was completely overmatched in the playoffs and at some point does the defensive prowess become worth the poor quality of at-bats?
The Immaculate Vibes Died:
This to me is what stings the most. There doesn’t seem to be a Philadelphia sports team that has ever matched the level of vibes the Phillies did this 2023 season. You had the Trea Ovation, Lorenzen no-hitter/Wes Wilson home run, Bryce home run #300, and Orion’s dad debut…that was all in the span of about a month. You also had the Castellanos quotes, the Jose Alvarado necklaces, the return of Dancing on my Own, Liam Castellanos, the overalls road trip, and the Garrett Stubbs celebrations. Every story that came from the clubhouse was either: “wow, these guys are such goofballs they are the best” or “wow, that was so touching that brought me to tears”.
And in the end, all we will remember is a collapse against an inferior opponent.
The Worst Loss in Philly Sports History:
(Note: I am 28 years old. I’m sure Joe Carter sucked. I wasn’t even alive)
I can deal with the Eagles losing the Super Bowl after having a 10 point lead. They played Patrick Mahomes, who will go down as the greatest football player of all time. It was a great game, Jalen Hurts was awesome, just wasn’t enough. I can deal with the Kawhi buzzer beater in Game 7 against the Raptors. That is a stunning way to lose but sports can be dumb luck sometimes. This is the most fun I’ve had watching the Phillies since Roy Halladay pitched every 5th day. They were a fun group of guys on a roster even more talented that the one who made the World Series just a year ago. And in the span of less that a week, they collapsed, blew three leads in four losses, and lost two elimination games on their home field. They went from being Cinderella, to watching Cinderella rip their heart out.