The Phillies are free-falling back to normal
June has not been kind to the Philadelphia Phillies. They’ve played 14 games, and they’ve won just four. They’ve dropped to six games under the .500 mark. They began the month by being swept by the Washington Nationals only for the Nats to sweep them again less than two weeks later. They started June 4.5 games out of first in the NL East, and are now 11 back. And the month is only half over.
This is quite the comedown from April and May, in which the Phillies played competitive, if not always competent baseball. After a rough start in Cincinnati, they swept the San Diego Padres, the Nationals, and the Cleveland Indians, all in April. They had been at or above .500 since the middle of that month, and on May 17 they were second in the NL, just a half a game back.
You can watch the Phillies try to recapture that old April magic when they take on the Toronto Blue Jays in today’s Yahoo Sports’ MLB Free Game of the Day. That means you can stream it free on Yahoo’s Sports Home, MLB index and video home. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. ET. Local blackouts apply, per MLB’s rules.
It might seem like the Phillies are in free-fall, especially considering how unexpectedly great they were in the early going. But the key there is “unexpectedly.” Because the Phillies aren’t free falling as much as they’re readjusting to the level they should have been at all along.
[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Baseball contest now]
Part of the magic of April and May was their record in one-run games. In those two months, they were 14-4 in one-run games, better than anyone else in baseball. After a few bad outings, their bullpen was rock solid and their starters performed better than anyone could have hoped. Their team ERA for April was 3.79, and for May it was 3.92, both in the middle of the pack.
That solid pitching held up an anemic offense that had a lot of trouble scoring runs. Those one-run victories were vital, because the offense simply couldn’t score very much. Those 14 one-run wins represented more than half of their entire win total for April and May. So when the bottom dropped out, it dropped out hard. Their team ERA has cratered in June, and it’s currently at 5.36, the worst in baseball. Starters Jeremy Hellickson and Adam Morgan have opponents teeing off on them regularly, the bullpen has been coughing up runs, and even ace Aaron Nola had an off start. Meanwhile, the offense has gotten even worse, dropping from an average in the .230s to .217 in June.
The Phillies have been playing badly, but it’s probably closer to reality than their early-season performance was. The truth hurts, but at least the team (and their fans) got a taste of how it feels to win. That will have to carry them through until 2017 or 2018, when the team might be ready to contend. Or, at least until the next improbable winning streak.
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:
– – – – – –
Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher
