Rhys Back on the IL

If you watched Rhys Hoskins try to play defense last night, it should come as no surprise that he's been put back on the injured list with groin issues. And that's really bad news for the Phillies.

Without Hoskins in the lineup, the Phillies haven't been able to score runs. I wanted to write "struggled," but what's happened seems a lot worse than a struggle. They enter tonight's game back at .500 and 5 games behind the Braves.

The Braves have had injury issues all season and it hasn't stopped them from playing like a playoff team. They have depth in the minor leagues, which allowed them to make deals when players like All Star Ronald Acuna, Jr. tore up his knee and was lost for the season.

The Phillies don't have that depth. Scoring will continue to be an issue without Hoskins in the lineup, and that puts extra pressure on the pitching staff. And that's never a good thing for an equally fragile group. 

Between last night's tie-breaking 9th inning HR surrendered by Zach Wheeler and today's news of Hoskins being sidelined again, it's hard to feel optimistic about the last 36 games of the season. Baseball-Reference.com gives that Phils a 17.6% chance to make the playoffs. FiveThirtyEight has the Phils at 17% and FanGraphs has them at 19.9%. 

With Hoskins on the injured list from Aug. 6 through Aug. 21, the Phils went 6-8 and scored just 40 runs in those 14 games. It's going to be awfully hard to make the playoffs with production like that.