About a week and a half ago, the Phillies had won 11 of their last 12 games and led the NL East by two games over the Mets.
They’ve looked almost completely unrecognizable since and are now behind New York by 4.5 games.
After looking like one of the best teams in baseball to open the season, the Phillies have lost nine of their last 10, are averaging only three runs per game in that stretch and just got swept in a three-game series by the lowly 26-40 Pirates.
The bats are to blame for a hefty majority of the team’s struggles.
Since their series against the Brewers May 30, the Phillies have tallied just 55 hits in nearly 300 at-bats. They’ve hit just eight home runs and batted in 25 runs. They’ve walked just 19 times and struck out 68 times.
Their slashing line over the abysmal stretch sits at a .187 batting average, .239 on-base percentage and .320 slugging percentage.
Philadelphia has lost five straight and scored just eight runs across those games — tallying just one run in four of them.
The first domino to fall that perhaps led to the brutal stretch was two-time NL MVP Bryce Harper going down with injuries.
He took a fastball off of his surgically repaired right elbow against the Braves on May 27, missed the next five games, returned for three against the Blue Jays and is now on the 10-day injured list with a wrist injury.
The team is 1-7 in the games Harper has missed.
Second baseman Bryson Stott was asked after getting swept by the Pirates about whether hitters are pressing too much to make up for the loss of Harper.
“A little bit. We saw it in ’22 when he was down, it took a second to finally have everyone calm down and realize we’ve still got to play our game,” he said. “He’s Bryce Harper and you’re not gonna try to step up to be Bryce Harper, you want to be yourself. Obviously, you want to hit like him. But a little bit of trying too hard or coming out of approaches.”
Stott is slashing .239/.303/.338 this season and has struggled mightily with just five hits across the 1-9 stretch.
“The easy thing is to say it’s a long season but we know we’re better than how we’ve been playing and we need to start doing it,” Stott said.
