You know finishing the regular season with the second best record with 95 wins and having the first round bye in the playoffs you would far into the playoffs right? Welp guess what that was not the case for the 2024 Phillies. They lost the NLDS series to the New York Mets 3-1. The NEW YORK METS!!!!!! If you could not tell I am not the biggest fan of the Mets but that’s besides the point how did the Phillies mess up that bad. You were one of the best teams in the league throughout the entire season but still find ways to mess it up in the end. First half of the season they had the best record in the league and had a league high of 8 different players be elected to be all-stars. Having one of the best hitting offenses in the league with the best pitching staff too. Pitchers like Zack Wheeler and Ranger Saurez pitching at a Cy young caliber. Aaron Nola is doing Aaron Nola things, eating innings, letting up only a few runs and Christopher Sanchez pitching the best in his entire career. Our bullpen is shut down and one of the best in the league. Jeff Hoffman and Matt Straham fueling this beast of a bullpen.
Our offense is hotter than ever with players like Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Kyler Swarber, and the hottest hitter of them all Alec Bohm carrying our offense. Of course we got the work horses of the team like Nick Castellanos who did not miss a single game this entire season and an above average defensive catcher in JT Realmuto. Young studs like Bryson Stott and Johan Rojas begin to fully blossom while learning to become the best versions of themselves. Alec Bohm is playing unbelievable with putting up historic hitting numbers most players only dream of. Having nearly a .300 batting average and battling Marcell Ozuna for leading the league with RBI’s. Not only that but he led the league in doubles and he’s doing all this while only being in his 4th season in the majors. His glove needs work considering he unfortunately had a lot of errors in the field but that does not matter when you’re one of the best hitters in the league.
So looking back at this hot first half of the season you would figure after the All-star break they would consider staying hot. This in fact was not the case because Alec Bohm went from being one of the best hitters to a below average hitter and simply not playing on the same level as he was in the first half of the season. Not only him but the entire team’s bats went to sleep the second half of the season and our bullpen went from being unstoppable to letting up unlimited runs. After Ranger Saurez got injured he was rushed back and never pitched the same as he did when pitching like Cy Young. The only player that truly played at an unbelievable level was Zack Wheeler and he continued to dominate. Bryce Harper was off and on playing inconsistent while others around him were the same. Rob Thompson displayed too much weakness as our manager and was a big reason behind our late season struggles. The collapse of this team is something Philadelphia and Phillies fans will never forget. To hear more of this topic take a look at the newest episode of my podcast linked below with the return of a special guest!!!!!
