They're not pitching well, or hitting well, or fielding well. And when that happens at the same time, you tend to lose six out of seven. On April 21, Bryce Harper was hitting .357 with 1.118 OPS. Since then, his average his crashed to .274 and he's just 19 for his last 96 at-bats. Overall, the offense is doing a lot of swinging and missing. They've struck out a NL-leading 475 times in 46 games, or 27.6 percent of the time. They're only hitting .251 with runners in scoring position.
Not much was expected from Matt Moore and Chase Anderson, and they haven't done much. They've probably performed worse than expected. And ace Aaron Nola is really struggling. In his last three starts, Nola is 0-3 with a 6.89 ERA, with opposing hitters mashing .318 with a .908 OPS.
And it's looking more and more like Alec Bohm is not an everyday third baseman. He's committed seven errors in just 109 fielding chances. I see a move to left field or first base in his future. Let field makes more sense since Andrew McCutchen's contract is up after this season. Greg Luzinski and Pat Burrell both played passable LF. I'm reasonably sure Bohm can handle the move.
Didi Gregorius (when healthy) has been shaky at short. Maybe move him to third base next season and have Nick Maton and Bryson Stott for the shortstop job. And the fact the JT Realmuto has already missed 11 games this year and will be out through at least Friday isn't helping the offense or pitching staff.
The good news is there are still 116 games to play. The bad news is that if the sloppy defense and wimpy offense continues, it's not going to matter.
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