25 Philadelphia Phillies (Sánchez, C) @ Houston Astros (Brown, H)

LoneStarPhan 2025-06-26 20:45:03 UTC #81

I guess that I can take some comfort in the fact that I could have done as well as Schwarber, Bohm, and Castellanos in the top of the ninth.

I never liked Houston. Glad to move on.

zambonir 2025-06-26 20:48:18 UTC #82

I would like to play them again this year though.

VoteForKalas 2025-06-26 20:48:31 UTC #83

Wow, well flush that series and get ready for ATL. We can't play any worse on offense.

allentown 2025-06-26 21:33:10 UTC #84

The bat we are supposed to get next week is Harper. What bat would we trade for who would substantially improve the team?

andyb 2025-06-26 21:44:34 UTC #85

I do get the feeling that there is just a synergistic effect with Harper in the lineup. Even if he is not going well pitchers need to make tougher pitches to him, which helps everyone else in the lineup.

Houston is also just a good team. We need to find ways to win 2-1 games.

zambonir 2025-06-26 22:22:11 UTC #86

Like I said I don't really mean it. Certainly Harper will help, and they have done very well without him (often because of pitching). And Houston is indeed a good team, and we just took two of three from another good team. It's also unlikely there is anyone available at the trade deadline that would be worth the price of a Ranger, especially not directly. But I still think I'd be thinking about what it takes to sign Kyle Tucker (and Kyle Schwarber, and JT) more than I would be about extending Ranger. Unfortunately that's a whole other economic level that the Phillies probably won't reach.

Of course Dombrowski is just posturing here and there's really not much he can do besides maybe replace Kepler or at least the Wilson/Kemp spot. But how many fans agree with him?

VoteForKalas 2025-06-27 00:00:18 UTC #87

It is not Houston nor is it one or two series. This is the 4th year of this run and we've seen it every year.

It is not a new or isolated trend. It is the Phillies fatal flaw that they have never fixed and may not be able to fix until they admit the roster needs to change and their approach at roster building revamped.

andyb 2025-06-27 00:07:59 UTC #88

We are just not going to win the World Series without Bryce Harper in the lineup. Call it a fatal flaw but it is what it is.

We have always built a team good enough to win but not really head and shoulders better than 3 or 4 other teams clustered around us. The Dodgers can afford backups everywhere when we just can't. And do the Dodgers really win if Ohtani is not in the lineup? Or Betts? It would be tough on them too.

zambonir 2025-06-27 00:27:24 UTC #89

The overall approach worked great when they were knocking off the Braves twice, and San Diego. And when they won 95 games. If they hadn't blown the Arizona series so badly I don't think we'd be quite so negative, what happened to the Phillies last year has also happened to the Braves and Dodgers and Astros. But, they did lose that series, and those other teams already have championships.

I do agree that you can't fix it with a hitting coach or a scouting report, the mix of players it still just a little off. With hindsight, I with the Phillies had gone after Tucker but I don't think anyone would have liked the cost. Bregman too but that's a bat you want in addition to Bohm not instead of. And isn't it interesting the Astros are in first place and just swept us having dumped both of those players (and Correa and Springer in other years). Those are still the sins of the Monty/Klentak era though, for the most part.