The Phillies’ inconsistent offense was a big reason why they suffered a disappointing series loss to the Reds over the weekend.
This weekend was supposed to be a chance for the Phillies to pad their lead in the National League East against one of the worse teams in the league, the Cincinnati Reds. Instead, they dropped the last three games of the four-game series, allowing the Atlanta Braves to close the gap for the division lead.
How did this happen? While the pitching was not ideal, offensive inconsistency played a huge role in the series loss.
The series opener Thursday night was the only game where the bats were alive. The team launched a franchise-record-tying seven home runs to record a 9-4 win. Rhys Hoskins, Maikel Franco, and Nick Williams each cracked two with Carlos Santana adding another. However, the bats were largely quiet in the games after.
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The Phils got some offense, but not enough, in a 6-4 loss. Most of the blame fell on Nick Pivetta, who gave up five runs in six innings. Of course, it still stung to have Hoskins, the winning run, strikeout to end the game.
Saturday and Sunday were the games where the offensive ineptitude really showed. Vince Velasquez bailed himself out to keep the game tied at two. Hoskins’ two-run home run in the second drove in the team’s only runs of the game.
The club collected just four hits and two walks. They had few chances with runners in scoring position and failed to convert, going 0-for-4.
Sunday was an ugly performance through-and-through for the offense. They picked up eight hits but could not score a single run. They struck out 14 times, left eight runners on base, and went just 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. Zach Eflin turned in a pedestrian performance on the mound, allowing four runs in 5.1 innings, but it didn’t matter how many he gave up Sunday.
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Recent acquisition Asdrubal Cabrera proved to be little help in his first two games with the Phils. He went 0-for-4 in both games, striking out three times and leaving three runners on base combined. Obviously it was just two games, but seeing Cabrera make an instant impact would have been nice.
The offense has been an issue for a large part of the season. As a team, they rank 21st in OPS (.718), 26th in batting average (.237), 17th in on-base percentage (.318), 18th in runs per game (4.46), and third in strikeouts (996). Six of their everyday players have an OPS+ above 100, but it has not proven to be enough to keep the team afloat.
While Philadelphia’s offense has looked good at times, it still fails to show up on a consistent basis. If the starting pitching continues to have its issues, the team will need better results from the offense. Otherwise, more weekends like this will continue to happen.