The Phillies didn’t get the result they wanted Friday night, but they still moved a step closer to the finish line.
Philadelphia dropped a bullpen game to the Mets, with New York jumping Tim Mayza in the first inning and never giving the lead back. The loss was made tougher by the absence of Jesus Luzardo from the rotation, a void the Phillies felt right away.
Mayza couldn’t get through the opening inning, forcing the Phillies to turn earlier than planned to Jose Urquidy. In his first appearance with the club, Urquidy delivered 4.2 scoreless innings and helped keep Philadelphia within reach.
The rest of the night, though, turned rougher. Orion Kerkering struggled, and the offense never found enough to answer.
Even with the defeat, the Phillies got a boost elsewhere. The Yankees beat the Diamondbacks, which helped Philadelphia inch closer to clinching a playoff berth.
Arizona’s recent slide has created more separation in the wild card race, and the standings are tightening in a different way now. In the National League picture, there’s a three-way tie, with the Padres surging hard enough to catch both the Cubs and the Phillies.
That leaves Philadelphia with eight games left and a few clear areas to clean up. The biggest issue remains the offense, which simply isn’t scoring enough and is putting too much pressure on the pitching staff to be nearly flawless.
The rotation has generally held up, but the bullpen has been shaky this month. Getting the ball to Jhoan Duran in the playoffs is a concern, and the next week will be about finding some stability and rhythm out of that group.
The good news for the Phillies is that Andrew Painter and Zack Wheeler are lined up to start the next two games. If they can help the club take the series, Philadelphia will get even closer to locking in its postseason spot.
In Other News...
Cubs Wild Card Race Just Got A Lot More Complicated
The National League wild-card picture tightened again Sunday when the Padres rolled past the Marlins 8-2, pulling them level with the Cubs and Phillies in a three-way tie. It was the kind of late-season result that changes the mood around the standings in a hurry, especially with each win now carrying extra weight for teams trying to separate from the pack.
San Diego got there with a steady mix of timely hitting, starting with Fernando Tatis Jr.s game-tying RBI single before Dustin Harris added a two-run single and Ty France broke it open with a three-run homer. Frances shot also pushed him to a new career high with 21 homers, and the Padres now sit four games from clinching a playoff berth while still chasing a better wild-card position. [Read more 🡒]
Justin Crawford Is Making The Phillies Reconsider A Bigger Role
Justin Crawfords first months in the majors did not exactly announce a long-term answer for the Phillies. Through his first 215 plate appearances, he was carrying a .634 OPS and a 73 wRC+, the kind of uneven offensive start that usually keeps a young player in a narrower lane while a club figures out the rest of the roster.
Since mid-June, though, Crawford has made a much stronger case for himself, and the Phillies have responded by keeping him in the lineup more regularly. His work against left-handed pitchers has been especially encouraging, and while there are still parts of his game that need refinement, the overall trend is hard to ignore for a team trying to map out its future. [Read more 🡒]