Something strange is brewing in the National League East as two teams with lofty expectations have stubbed their toes out of the starting blocks. While the woeful Mets are getting much of the coverage amid an 11-game losing slide, the Phillies are sinking at nearly the same rate. Philadelphia is now 8-14 after dropping its sixth straight contest, a 5-1 loss at the hands of the Cubs, on Monday night. The Phillies are just a half-game out of the cellar and already 7.5 games behind the surging Braves.
Only four teams in Major League Baseball have a higher payroll, which makes it alarming that the Phillies are racing clubs like the White Sox and Royals to the very bottom. Most surprising is that through 22 games the Phillies sport the worst run differential of anyone at -42.
So what has gone wrong to create such a deep hole?
Too many no-shows
One does not post a run differential like the aforementioned -42 without consistently being on the wrong side of routs. Seven of the Phillies' 14 losses have been by five runs or more, including three during their current skid. The Cubs thumped them 10-4 and 11-2 last week at Citizens Bank Park. Earlier in the month Rob Thomson's side was blanked on back-to-back nights by the Giants. Philadelphia is actually 4-3 in one-run games and has an expected record one game worse than the one they actually carry so it's not been an issue of coming up short in clutch situations. The real problem is being competitive through the middle innings.
Can't defend home turf
On paper the Phillies had a perfect formula for getting off to a hot start. They played 15 of their first 21 games at home and passed on the opportunity by dropping 10 of them. In one of the more eyebrow-raising stats of April, they have already lost four home series after losing three during the entirety of last season. All of this led to their worst nine-game homestand in 17 years.
A punchless offense
Throw a dart at the MLB team offensive statistics and you'd have to aim low to find Philly. They are in the bottom five of most of the meaningful metrics, including 27th with 3.45 runs per game. Bryce Harper is ticking along nicely to this point and Kyle Schwarber is hitting home runs, though he's already fanned 34 times. Trea Turner carries a .655 OPS while Alec Bohm (.401) and Bryson Stott (.511) have failed to get anything positive going. Slow starts happen and the weather will warm up, but a widespread slump among so many players who have proven track records is too much to overcome.
Starting pitching is unreliable
Cristopher Sanchez appears to be one of the best arms in all of baseball, carrying a 1.59 ERA through his four starts. The other four starters are simply not getting it done. Aaron Nola is better than the 5.06 mark he's posted. Jesus Luzardo is 1-3 with a 7.94 ERA, which isn't even worst on staff because Taijuan Walker is also 1-3 with a 9.16 ERA.
Not doing the little things
The Phillies are 22nd in stolen bases (12) and 25th in walks (72). They have committed 15 errors and have the 26th best fielding percentage across baseball. The things around the margins are not going well in addition to what are shaping up to be some major issues.
All of these faults add up to a team that's way behind their pace. With deep talent and a long summer ahead, there should be some optimism that the train can get back on the track. But with the NL Central shaping up to potentially field four playoff teams, any path to the postseason that doesn't include winning the division may be growing increasingly narrow.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Five Things That Have Gone Wrong for Phillies During Awful Start.
