Phillies 2026 News and Discussion

[Callison]

Been a lot of baserunning errors lately, but Harper going to 3rd late yesterday looks like the worst and proved an omen.

A chance to hang a rare L on Sale, gain a game, hand Nola a well-earned W, show the Braves the Phils are in it, all gone. The game could be in the bottom ten worst games the Phil have ever played, maybe the bottom 3 in "tragic".

Plenty of season left though. Gotta forget about yesterday and start over.

[bkox]

Should we be 2nd guessing Mattingly for letting Jesus go all 9 the other day?

[allentown]

His last game was the best performance by a SP this season. But this shows the danger of too many (109) pitches. In a one-run game, all fairly high stress.

[Philsmania]

Between this 4-6 showing so far in September and the Luzardo news, what a difference--and not a good one--twelve days make.

[andyb]

I guess we see if the new guy Holman can pitch bulk innings. Not ideal.

[Taudawg]

Can they hold the 5th or 6th seed?

[zambonir]

Current fangraphs projection 94.2%.

So, sure, we could be living in one of the six realities out of 100 where it doesn't happen. In that same reality maybe Luzardo misses another start (but right now it sounds like he'll pitch this week, possibly even before what would have been his next turn).

Opponent-shopping always backfires but if they don't have home field in the WC round I'd rather see the Cubs than the Braves.

[chuckklein]

MLB.com article today features Ronald Acuna's dominance against the Phils, comparing it to Chipper Jones vs. the Mets. Why not add Ryan Howard vs. the Braves?

Jones vs. Mets .309 49 HR 159 RBI
Acuna vs. Phils .308 20 HR 64 RBI
Howard vs Braves .280 52 HR 155 RBI

[xogfog]

Luzardo to the 15 day IL backdated to Saturday, will miss the rest of the regular season, hopes to pitch in the playoffs. Bring up Gage Wood?

[andyb]

Rangel has not been pitching well. Chuck King not on the 40. Guessing they go with Backhus or Lazar and see where the bullpen is the next time they need a starter.

Or just get Grant Holman again. Still has that perfect ERA.

[zambonir]

Damn, that's a killer. Did they do any imaging?

Cortes is on the 40 too of course. I'm sure the roster spot isn't an issue, more that King (or Keller again) not necessarily better than bullpen games.

[David_Criss]

Holman recalled. There is zero pitching depth in this organization. As pointed out Rangel has not thrown well. Gage Wood got hit hard too and has thrown a lot of innings. Chuck King certainly doesn't excite me, but why not let him at least try to get a few innings to save the "precious" bullpen?

[andyb]

Cortes just got to AAA. Would not be shocked if he is up by the end for bullpen games. Especially in that last weekend where we might have less to play for and we don't want to use Sanchez or Wheeler or even Nola.

Not that it will be easy to clinch the 4 seed with a couple to play, but that is probably the reachable goal.

[zambonir]

I actually love Chuck King, but more because of his backstory.

At least Rangel has been able to do the job, albeit only at 6th/7th starter level, previously. I imagine it's gonna be a carousel.

The lemonade out of lemons factor here is if they fall a couple of more games behind the 4th seed, maybe they just let it go entirely. Going hard at the end can also be a formula for losing the WC series regardless.

You want the home games if you can get them. If you not, you maybe want to be 5th (playing at Chicago) not 6th (playing at Atlanta).

[Lucky_Beagle]

: The Phillies issued a correction, saying that lefty Kyle Backhus has been recalled as the corresponding move, rather than Holman.

[zambonir]

Saw Backhus reported in the Inquirer but MLB transactions had it wrong (and still does for the moment)

[majik]

We are going to miss the playoffs. We had our ace facing a Nats lineup without their three best players in the starting lineup (Wood, Abrams, Lile) and we lose. We score zero runs in four innings against the worst bullpen in MLB. The Brewers and Rays will chew us up next week

[RolenRules]

Yes, this was a disappointing loss. Sanchez looks like he is running out of steam, and Luzardo is out of commission so we will have a few more bullpen games. Hopefully we can at least stay in front of the Diamondbacks, who are a more flawed team than our Phightins.

[andyb]

Very possible that Aaron Nola is our top healthy starter at the moment.

[phillychuck]

Mattingly’s usage of the pitching staff and complete blind spot about when starters need a bit of a reduction in load has finally blown up. this team is toast.

Let’s go Sixers/eagles/flyers