Giant Struggles for Phillies on West Coast, Lose 2 Straight Series
D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports
Things haven’t been pretty for the Phillies as of late. Back-to-back series losses against teams they probably should have beaten. This time it was in the bay against the San Francisco Giants (29-28) and the Phils dropped 2 of 3 games.
Taijuan Walker in Game 1, Good pitching in Games 2 and 3
Taijuan Walker’s return to the MLB has been nothing short of disastrous. This was highlighted on Monday when, to put it bluntly, Taijuan got shelled again lasting just 6 innings in the loss.
Zack Wheeler took over and did his thing in the second game of the series continuing his elite start to the year. He’s second in MLB in strikeouts with 85, and he lowered his ERA to 2.32.
Christopher Sanchez solidified his name into the list of Phillies doing surprisingly well this season with his great outing earlier today lowering his ERA to 2.83.
MV3 season is ON — No shortage of drama either
Bryce Harper has been nothing short of amazing so far this year. This is a HUGE sigh of relief given that over the last 2 seasons, Bryce hasn’t had great regular seasons, but obviously showing out in October.
Through just 52 games for Bryce, his home run numbers are only 8 away from his 21 total in 2023 and just 5 away from his 2022 number of 18.
He is top 10 in both HRs and RBIs and boasts an OPS of 0.888
Things weren’t all smooth sailing today however for Bryce Harper. From his first at-bat, Bryce was very, very off and wasn’t exactly taking it well either.
After the first inning ended, Harper was seen entering the clubhouse for an unknown reason adding more concern that he may have been injured. This stems from Bryce looking somewhat shaken up following the E1 that allowed Marco Luciano to reach first base
Things escalated further after Kyle Harrison threw a pitch way inside the box and the Phillies were, for lack of a better word, pissed. Benches cleared resulting in warnings going to both teams.
Got to break out of this slump
The Phillies are officially cold. This was bound to happen, any team no matter how talented they are was going to fall back down to Earth eventually after a historic start like the Phillies had.
With that being said, the team still needs to get out of this slump as fast as possible. With the Braves beat up with injuries, now is the time the Phillies need to widen the gap between 1st and 2nd.
The opportunity to do that is in the Phillies’ hands. Up next is a 3-game series vs the Cardinals (27-27) and while the Cardinals aren’t terrible the Phillies should be expected to win the series.
Use code PHILLYSPORTSREPORT for $20 off your first SeatGeek order
Click here to save 10% on any order at FOCO
