🔔 Phillies Settle for Doubleheader Split

_{LAST GAME: Phillies 7 - Braves 5}

_{NEXT GAME: Phillies (Zack Wheeler) vs. Braves (Max Fried)}

_{Today, 6:40 EDT | NBCSP, 94 WIP}

Good morning. The Phillies earned a split of their day-night doubleheader with the Braves yesterday. It was a perfectly reasonable result against baseball’s best team, though in Game 1 they managed to waste a dramatic late-game homer from Bryce Harper for the third time in three weeks.

Other highlights of the day included Kyle Schwarber raising his batting average over .200 for the first time since May 2, Trea Turner collecting four total hits, and a struggling bullpen clamping things down to seal a win in the nightcap.

In the email today:

It feels like Phillies pitchers are hitting a little bit of a late-season wall, doesn’t it? Some recent late-game blowups by the bullpen and a number of shaky starts aren’t exactly what you want to see during the final turn of the schedule.

Remember June, when Phillies pitchers recorded a league-best 3.05 ERA over 26 games? The starting rotation was particularly good, topping all MLB teams with a 2.73 ERA.

Here’s the thing, if you look at the rotation’s numbers over the last month, the stats aren’t awful, but they are poor enough to validate concerns about what it might look like in a playoff scenario. Since Aug. 12 (one month), Phillies starters have compiled a 4.69 ERA (17th in MLB) with a 1.32 WHIP (15th) over 28 games.

Here’s what it has looked like behind Zack Wheeler:

• Taijuan Walker: 5 starts, 26 IP, 5.88 ERA, 1.692 WHIP, .841 OPS against

• Michael Lorenzen: 5 starts, 26 IP, 7.96 ERA, 1.85 WHIP, .997 OPS against

• Aaron Nola: 5 starts, 28 IP, 5.46 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, .794 OPS against

• Ranger Suárez: 3 starts, 16.2 IP, 3.78 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, .687 OPS against

• Cristopher Sánchez: 5 starts, 27.2 IP, 2.93 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, .751 OPS against

Our take: There are lots of question marks behind Zack Wheeler right now. Nola has been both disappointing and inconsistent, while Walker and Lorenzen have been bad for a month.

Suárez appears to be trending in the right direction, while Sánchez has been stellar, but do the Phillies view him as a legitimate option to start a potential postseason game? We’ll see.

The hypothetical postseason rotation has been a question for about five weeks now, and recent performance hasn’t brought any clarity.

2)🐎 The Pursuit of .200

With a single in the fifth inning of the Phillies’ 10-8 loss, Kyle Schwarber went somewhere he hadn’t been in 132 days — over the Mendoza line.

After plummeting to a .176 average through 111 games on Aug. 5, Schwarber has surged to .201 on the strength of a red-hot stretch.

Check out some of these numbers since then:

• Over his last 32 games, he is 33-for-114 (.290 BA) with 16 (!) homers, 14 (!) singles, and 3 doubles.

• He has drawn 35 walks, meaning he has reached base safely in 68 of his last 150 plate appearances. That’s good for a .453 on-base percentage.

• He has done this while posting a .737 slugging-percentage and a 1.190 OPS.

Our take: Schwarber has been a menace to opposing pitchers for more than a month now. While hitting .199 as opposed to .201 is rather inconsequential, at least I don’t have to hear “dude isn’t even hitting .200” when discussing his overall value.

3) ☹️ Tweet of the Day: What a Letdown

Nobody seizes the moment quite like Bryce Harper. Perhaps the bullpen is so in awe of his clutch gene that they forget they need to finish the job?

4) 📊 Poll: Bryce Harper and the Clutch Gene

📊 Have additional thoughts? Reply directly to this email to comment, and see if we include your response tomorrow.

…

Results from our last poll [Would the Phillies beat the Braves in a postseason rematch?]:

The people are not feeling too confident:

Your replies…

“No, not with the way this bullpen has been pitching lately.”

“It pains me to answer this way as a Phillies fan living in Atlanta, but the Braves have been consistently good & getting it done all season - to beat them the Phillies would need everything to come together (offense, starting pitching, bullpen) in a way that they have not been able to do regularly this season.”

“Yes, because the Braves fold like a house of cards when it comes to the postseason. ”

5) 🔗 Link Roundup:

• Jeff Hoffman continues to dominate out of the bullpen. 💪🏻

• Here is the Scott Franzke call of the Bryce Harper homer. 🎙️

• NBCSP’s Corey Seidman on the importance of last night’s win. ‼️

• More on Taijuan Walker’s recent struggles. 😦

The newsletter today was written by: Bob Wankel (Follow on X)

Thanks for reading!