Once again, a slow start has Phils swinging for answers

PHILADELPHIA — Going from a 1-5 roadtrip to start 2023 to a 2-4 homestand to open 2024 isn’t likely what the Phillies had in mind as improvement.

Cherish the extra game in the standings, perhaps, but there were no warm-and-fuzzies late Wednesday night after a 4-1 loss to Cincinnati. The 3-hour, 55-minute rain delay wasn’t to blame, either. Instead, there’s a bit of a quandary as to what exactly is at fault in the Phillies’ umpteenth straight slow start to a season, despite so many offseason pontifications about preventing another.

“It is what it is,” pitcher Zack Wheeler said. “There’s nothing we can do about it now. We’ve got to play a little more consistent and we’ll be where we want to be.”

In fingering culprits, it’s not the starting pitching. Five of six starters – all but Aaron Nola against the Braves – gave the Phillies a chance to win. Wheeler struck out 10 and allowed only three hits in six innings Wednesday but was tagged with three runs, two of them unearned. The bullpen has had moments of brilliance, but also an implosion or two.

The bats have been … just OK, and perhaps is the factor most limiting the Phillies early. Bryce Harper’s offensive production was limited to one (albeit historic) night. Kyle Schwarber has a pair of homers and is hitting .280. He and Brandon Marsh are producing consistently while others are stuck in neutral.

Add in Nick Castellanos, in a trademark Nick Castellanos funk with three singles in six games, and Johan Rojas toting a 1-for-15 as an automatic pinch-hit candidate once the Phillies trail from the sixth inning on, and the order is looking woefully short these days.

All of those issues are, in theory, temporary. But they seem to be clustering in all the right – or from a Phillies’ perspective, wrong – ways to lead to losses.

“We’re a better offensive club than we’re showing obviously, and it’ll come,” manager Rob Thomson said. “I have all the confidence in the world. But we’re off to a little bit of a slow start. Tough hitting tonight, tough conditions, but no excuses.”

Some of the contributions are more concerning than others. Connor Brogdon being DFA’d has removed a weak link in the bullpen chain. Miscues like Bryson Stott’s costly error in the third inning Wednesday, allowing two unearned runs to score on an otherwise steady Wheeler, are ill-timed though, history would say, outliers.

“I don’t think anyone’s happy after a loss,” Schwarber said after his sixth-inning solo homer accounted for the Phils’ only run. “I think there’s a lot of positive things to take away from the homestand, but at the end of the day, we wanted to finish better than 2-4. We have a good challenge ahead on the road.”

The schedule will give the Phillies time to right themselves. Their next nine series covering 30 games are against teams that didn’t make the playoffs last year. The next time they face a 2023 division winner is June 3 against Milwaukee.

In the two months until then, they have two games with Toronto, three at Miami and three against reigning World Series champion Texas. The other 14 series come against teams that had tee times by the first week of last October.

If nothing else, the Phillies have a chance over the next few weeks to play well enough to banish this latest bad-start storyline.

“I think everybody’s still locked in to playing well and getting off to a good start,” Thomson said, “and winning the division.”

Source: Berkshire mont