Alan Rangel surrendered five runs over four innings as the Phillies fell, 6-1, to the New York Mets at Citizens Bank Park. By the time Jhoan Duran pitched the ninth inning, Philadelphia was already facing a five-run deficit and completing another game that had gotten away from its fifth-starter spot.
Duran was not used because the Phillies needed their closer. He was used because their closer needed work.
His previous regular-season appearance came July 11 against the Detroit Tigers. Since then, Duran had faced two batters in the All-Star Game but had not pitched in a game that counted. Interim manager Don Mattingly said afterward that Duran had communicated before Sunday’s game that he needed to return to the mound.
The Phillies limited him to 22 pitches, but the larger issue was the amount of work required from the entire pitching staff.
Rangel needed 91 pitches to complete four innings. Tim Mayza, Max Lazar and Seth Johnson combined for another 95 pitches over the next four. Duran’s appearance pushed Philadelphia’s total to 208 pitches, the club’s highest in a game this season and its most since May 19, 2023.
That is the secondary cost of an unreliable fifth starter.
The Phillies did not merely lose a game. They asked four relievers to cover five innings before beginning a difficult stretch against the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. A bullpen that has already raised depth concerns was forced to absorb another heavy workload in a game Philadelphia never seriously threatened to win.
The pattern has become impossible to dismiss.
The Phillies are 6-19 in the 25 games started by someone other than Cristopher Sánchez, Zack Wheeler, Jesús Luzardo or Aaron Nola. They have been outscored by 92 runs in those games.
When one of their established four starters takes the mound, Philadelphia is 49-26 with a plus-79 run differential.
That is the difference between a contender and one of baseball’s least competitive teams.
The Phillies have now lost 10 consecutive games started from the fifth position in the rotation and 13 of the past 14. Their most recent victory in one of those games came May 18 against Cincinnati.
Rangel gave the Mets an immediate advantage Sunday. New York scored twice in the first inning and three times in the second, creating more than enough separation for Nolan McLean.
McLean struck out 10 and allowed two hits over six scoreless innings. Francisco Lindor homered, drove in three runs and reached base five times as the Mets secured their first series victory at Citizens Bank Park in nearly four years.
Alec Bohm’s solo homer in the seventh accounted for the Phillies’ only run.
The offensive performance was not good enough, but the Phillies were again placed in an early hole by the weakest part of their rotation. They have tried Rangel, Andrew Painter and Taijuan Walker in the fifth spot. They have also used Tanner Banks, Mayza, Kyle Backhus and Zach Pop as openers.
None of those approaches has produced stability.
The lack of an internal answer places additional pressure on president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski before the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
Painter is the only healthy starter outside the current rotation on the 40-man roster, and his recent Triple-A results have not made a compelling case for an immediate return. Tucker Davidson, Kolby Allard and Chuck King provide additional options at Lehigh Valley, but none has emerged as an obvious solution.
The Phillies do not need another front-line starter. They need competence.
They need someone capable of pitching five or six innings, preventing games from unraveling early and giving the offense a reasonable chance. With roughly 10 turns remaining for the fifth starter, even an average veteran would represent a significant upgrade over what Philadelphia has received.
The schedule could provide temporary relief. An off day Thursday gives the Phillies an opportunity to skip the fifth spot and rely more heavily on Sánchez, Wheeler, Luzardo and Nola against the Dodgers and Yankees.
That would only delay the decision.
Rearranging the rotation could leave the Phillies without Sánchez or Wheeler during an important series against Miami, one of the teams pursuing them in the National League playoff race. Philadelphia entered the week only 2½ games ahead of the Marlins, the first club outside the postseason field.
The Phillies should remain a playoff team, but their position is not comfortable enough to continue treating every fifth game as an acceptable loss.
The problem is also beginning to affect the days surrounding those starts. Short outings force relievers into low-leverage innings, potentially limiting their availability when the Phillies have a lead to protect. Duran’s ninth inning Sunday was reasonable given his recent inactivity, but the rest of the bullpen’s workload was created by another starter failing to provide length.
Dombrowski has two weeks to prevent that from remaining a regular occurrence.
The Phillies’ fifth-starter problem is no longer about finding an ideal solution. It is about finding someone capable of keeping them in games—and preventing one weak rotation spot from placing additional strain on the rest of the pitching staff.
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