WASHINGTON _ It was approximately 3:05 p.m. on March 28 when Bryce Harper sprinted onto the field at sold-out Citizens Bank Park, turned to the delirious fans in the right-field seats, and bowed like an actor at the end of a play, thereby ushering in what was billed as the dawning of the next great era in Phillies history.
One hundred eighty-three days later, at about 7:05 Friday night, Harper will return to that spot as the right fielder of a losing team.
Gabe Kapler wasn't people's choice to lead Phillies, so owner John Middleton must not allow public opinion to decide manager's future | Scott Lauber
It has come to this, folks. After losing their sixth game in a row, 6-3 to the Washington Nationals on Thursday, the Phillies trudged home from an 11-game, 10-day road trip with a losing record for the first time all season. They are 79-80 and must sweep a three-game series from the last-place Miami Marlins _ against whom they have gone 7-9 _ to finish with a winning record for the first time since 2011.
The whole thing almost defies explanation. The Phillies opened the season with four consecutive victories. They were 11 games above the .500 mark on May 28. They occupied at least a share of first place in the National League East for 76 of the season's first 83 days and were in possession of a wild-card spot at the All-Star break.
Since then, though, the Phillies have gone 32-37. Majority partner John Middleton, who dropped nearly a half-billion dollars on the roster in the offseason, was here at Nationals Park this week to watch the Phillies get eliminated from playoff contention and will be at Citizens Bank Park this weekend.
Presumably there will be a reckoning.
Manager Gabe Kapler, who has one year left on his contract, continues to maintain that the Phillies are playing hard until the end. That was evident at times during an unforgiving three-city swing to Atlanta, Cleveland and Washington, from Bryce Harper sliding into second base with a hustle double Wednesday night to Adam Haseley's twisting, leaping, homer-robbing catch of Yan Gomes' drive in the first inning Thursday.
But results still matter, too, and the Phillies went 3-8 on the trip despite winning the first two games in Atlanta. The last four days in the nation's capital were a nightmare. The Phillies became the fifth team in the 21st century to get swept in a five-game series, according to MLBsweeps.com. They finished with a 5-14 record against the Nationals.
Jason Vargas couldn't stop the losing. When the Phillies acquired the soft-tossing lefty from the rival New York Mets on July 29 as their primary trade-deadline addition, they expected him to bolster a starting rotation that clearly wasn't good enough. In 11 starts, he posted a 5.37 earned-run average. The Phillies went 4-7 in his starts.
One win shy of 100 for his career, Vargas gave up one run in the first inning but could've allowed four if not for Haseley's catch. He allowed a solo homer to Michael A. Taylor in the second inning. After the Phillies crept within 2-1 in the fourth, he loaded the bases with one out in the fifth before being lifted at 101 pitches for rookie reliever Edgar Garcia, who walked in one run and wild-pitched in another before catcher Andrew Knapp's passed ball allowed a third run to score.
The Phillies were largely shut down for six innings by Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg, who gave up one run on four hits and piled up 10 strikeouts. On the 11-game trip, the Phillies batted .212 (77-for-363), scored 38 runs and struck out 100 times.
So now they return home, 183 days after they first arrived, to end the misery.
"I don't know (the fans' reaction will be) anything glaringly different," slumping first baseman Rhys Hoskins said. "Hopefully we can play some good baseball. I think that's always something that will be positive in the fans' eyes. Try to go home, finish strong, play good baseball, and then we turn towards 2020."
That last part can't happen soon enough.
