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| The historic slide continued Saturday for the Phillies. | CREDIT: Tom Shifton |
The Phillies entered the night with their magic number stuck at two, Arizona one game behind them for the National League’s final Wild Card spot and only two games remaining. The Diamondbacks own the tiebreaker. So forget champagne. Forget clinching scenarios. The Phillies had reached the point where the assignment was much simpler: Win a baseball game. Stop leaving the door open. Stop giving Arizona chances to walk through it.
Instead, they lost to Tampa Bay, 12-1.
And somehow the score doesn't fully explain how embarrassing this was.
The Phillies' only run scored because the Rays committed an error.
That’s it.
Game 161. A postseason berth hanging in the balance. A magic number that hadn't moved. And the Phillies finished the night without driving in a run.
They went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. They stranded 11. Tampa Bay collected 17 hits. And a Phillies team that spent most of the summer operating as though October was its eventual destination walked off its own field after being dismantled by 11 runs.
The Phillies have now lost four consecutive games.
They have scored three runs in those four games.
Three.
Aaron Nola deserves some separation from the wreckage.
The Phillies asked their longtime right-hander to start on two days' rest after he threw 88 pitches over six innings Wednesday against Milwaukee. Nola took the baseball because his team needed innings, outs and, frankly, somebody willing to try something unusual in a desperate situation.
That matters.
The results weren't there.
Nola allowed four hits and three runs in one inning. Yandy Díaz doubled to open the game. Junior Caminero crushed a two-run homer. Victor Mesa Jr. doubled. Richie Palacios drove him home.
Three runs.
The Phillies hadn't taken a swing yet.
It would be easy to make Nola the symbol of this loss.
He shouldn't be.
Starting him on two days' rest was evidence of how far the Phillies were willing to reach for a victory. Nobody reasonably expected vintage Nola for seven innings. The idea was to piece together 27 outs and give the offense enough room to change the game.
The offense never came close.
Tampa Bay used seven pitchers.
Philadelphia produced seven hits.
Trea Turner had two. Bryson Stott doubled twice. Bryce Harper had a hit. Kyle Schwarber went hitless. Alec Bohm went hitless.
And when the Phillies did put runners somewhere interesting, the inning usually died there.
By the fifth, Tampa Bay led 7-0.
By the sixth, it was 10-0.
José Alvarado entered and recorded one out while allowing three runs and walking three. José Urquidy allowed three more. Max Lazar surrendered two in the ninth.
The Rays went 7-for-16 with runners in scoring position.
The Phillies went 0-for-6.
That is the game.
Maybe that is the week.
Philadelphia scored once Wednesday in a 4-1 loss to Milwaukee. Once Thursday in a 5-1 loss. Nothing Friday in a 2-0 loss to Tampa Bay.
Then came Saturday.
One more run.
And even that required assistance.
Stott opened the seventh with a double and eventually scored when Justin Crawford reached on second baseman Palacios' fielding error.
No RBI.
No breakthrough.
Just 10-1 instead of 10-0.
That may be the most remarkable statistic of this entire four-game collapse: At the precise moment the Phillies needed their offense most, they have produced three runs in four games.
This isn't one reliever blowing a lead. It isn't a bad hop. It isn't somebody running into a great pitcher and shrugging afterward.
The entire offense has disappeared.
And the timing could hardly be worse.
As recently as Tuesday, Philadelphia held a four-game advantage over Arizona for the final postseason spot. Three Phillies losses and three Diamondbacks wins reduced that cushion to one entering Saturday.
Then the Phillies lost again.
For months, October felt less like a question than an eventuality.
Now they've spent four consecutive nights unable to budge a magic number stuck at two.
That is how quickly a baseball season can turn.
Wednesday, plastic sheeting was hanging above lockers in the Phillies clubhouse in preparation for a possible champagne celebration.
Saturday night, those same Phillies walked off the field after a 12-1 humiliation while Arizona's result in San Diego carried enormous consequences for what remained of their season.
And somehow there is still Sunday.
One hundred sixty-one games are gone.
One remains.
After four straight losses, three runs in four games and their ugliest performance at the worst possible moment, the Phillies have pushed a season that once appeared safely headed for October all the way to the edge.
Nola took the baseball on two days' rest because the Phillies needed somebody to answer the bell.
The offense never did.
And on a night when Philadelphia desperately needed to move its magic number, the only number that moved was the one on the scoreboard.
Twelve to one.
It was every bit as embarrassing as it looks.
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