Now What?

It's looking grim, folks. 

The Phils have played their asses off in June to the tune of a 17-6 record but still find themselves 9 games behind the first-place Mets. And in case you missed it last night, they're going to be without Bryce Harper for a while, who suffered a broken thumb after being hit by a pitch in the fourth inning.

Harper is having another MVP year with a .985 OPS, which is almost 160 points higher than Kyle Schwarber, the only other Phillie with an OPS above .800. 

It's going top be up to Schwarber, Rhys Hoskins, JT Realmuto, and Nick Castellanos to save the season to keep the Phils in contention. That seems like a pretty big ask from those guys, who have struggled to hit consistently. 

Realmuto and Castellanos have been the biggest disappointments so far, both posting an OPS of around .680. Realmuto is hitting .206 in his last 10 games with a .707 OPS. Castellanos is at .175 and an anemic .483 in his last 10. Both have an OPS+ below 100, which means they're playing worse than the average major league player. 

Hoskins is Hoskins, being his usual streaky self. But Harper has been carrying this team with another fantastic season. But he's out of the picture for a while, so it's up to Realmuto and Castellanos to prove their worth and save this season.

Wild Walkoff Win

Today happens to be my birthday, and I was getting a little nostalgic this morning and decided to comb through baseball-reference.com just to see how the Phillies have fared every June 5 since I was born.

Considering the Phillies are the losingest team in pro sports history, I assumed they'd have a piss-poor record in June 5 games dating back to 1962. But surprisingly, they're 31-25 after today's dramatics. I made a spreadsheet with links to all the games, and today's has to be the best of them. It's pretty hard to top a Bryce Harper game-tying grand slam in the 8th followed by a 3-run walkoff homer from Bryson Stott in the bottom of the ninth with 2 out and a full count. Talk about drama.

There were some interesting games in that list, though Like on June 5, 1973, for example, where Phillies starter Wayne Twitchell pitched a 7-hit shutout against the Astros. He struck out 8 and walked 7 in the game. Dude must have thrown 200 pitches.

The low-point on the list has to be 1977, where the Phils lost both ends of a doubleheader to the Mets. Yes, the Mets. Eeew.

I was at the 2012 game with my son when Cliff Lee struck out 12 Dodgers but still lost 2-1. That game stands out because I caught a Ryan Howard batting practice homer in right that smashed off the scoreboard on the facade of the second deck and into my hands. 

Other great performances include a 98-pitch complete game from Jamie Moyer in 2010, and Cole Hamels striking out 11 in a 6-1 win in 2013. 

But the strangest game has to be June 5, 1989. Baseball-reference has the game tied at 3 after eight innings  and the game was called because of rain. I can't find any record of the game being completed, so it'd be cool if someone could help me out with that. 

But today has to be the best birthday win in my 60 years on the planet. Down 5-0 and looking dead, the Phils clawed back in dramatic fashion, thanks to Harper and Stott. Thanks for the great birthday win, Phillies. 

Girardi Out

We all saw it coming, but will it do any good? The Phils have fired manager Joe Girardi and replaced him with bench coach Rob Thomson.

The Phils have alternated between disappointing and terrible this season. They have baseball's fourth-highest payroll and are seven games under .500, 12 games out of first place. The main problems have been bad defense, another bad bullpen, and an inconsistent offense. 

How much of that is Girardi's fault? Maybe the bullpen, based on some of his decisions. Maybe the offense due to lineup construction. But the construction of the team falls on Dave Dombrowski, who was brought in to bring the Phils back to the playoffs. That's not working out so well right now.

Something had to be done, because it can't be business as usual when a team is underperforming as much as the Phillies are. I thought it might be a trade, but firing the manager is an easy move. Girardi's contract was up at the end of the year and Dombrowski, who didn't hire him, had given no indication of Girardi would be back.

Incidentally, this is the second time the Phils have fired a manager on a day when I have tickets to a game. I have tickets for tonight against the Angels. I also had tickets to the game in Chicago in June 1987 when the Phils fired John Felske and replaced him with Lee Elia. It was my first time at Wrigley and I was staying with cousins who lived in the suburbs. It was great seeing my cousins, visiting the historic ballpark, and seeing a terrible manager get canned. The Phils lost the day, BTW.

I guess Thomson is a good pick an interim manager, since he's familiar with the team. I would have loved to see Charlie Manuel get the job, but I doubt the 78-year-old legend wanted anything to do with this crazy time shitshow. 

There are 111 games left in the season, so there's theoretically time to turn things around. But this looks like the Mets' year. Is a wild card berth possible? Only if Thomson can find a way to make the defense, bullpen, and offense better.