Phillies not off to a great start, 25% through 2020 season
By Nikki Dson
The Phillies’ 6-9 record is not what we hoped it would be through the first quarter of the 2020 season
Even though Bryce Harper slugged his 12th career walk-off on Friday, the Philadelphia Phillies have not started their 2020 season off in an ideal fashion.
Throw in “pandemic baseball,” add in a COVID outbreak among the Marlins — which affected the Phillies — and top it off with it being a short season. What do you get? A worrisome record of 6-9 so far in 2020.
Coming off of just being swept by the Baltimore Orioles, the Phillies are now amid a three-game weekend series against the New York Mets, before heading to Boston for a two-game set against the Red Sox.
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“It’s concerning,” Realmuto recently told the Philadelphia Inquirer about the team’s start. “Nobody wants to start off [several games under .500] whether it’s a 162-game season or not. But this shortened season we have to get it going quicker than we normally would. It’s definitely being talked about in the clubhouse.”
Fellow Phillies veteran Jake Arrieta also said that the team has not performed up to its standards. “But,” he added to the Inquirer, “there’s really no time to worry about that. We just have to play better.”
“That’s basically the bottom line. If we don’t start to play better, we’re going to be in a tough spot.”
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Arrieta, 1-2 so far this year, recorded the loss in the final game of the recent three-game series against the Orioles, which resulted in the Orioles completing their first road sweep in several seasons.
The right-hander pitched 4 2/3 innings and gave up four runs, seven hits and only struck out four. Amid a shaky bullpen, and in the final season of his three-year contract, the Phillies will need Arrieta to return to some semblance of his pinnacle performances with the Chicago Cubs.
Can the Phandemic Krew swoop in and provide some morale for the team before they go back on the road? I do imagine playing only for cardboard cutouts is a bit odd for players to get used to, especially those that feed off of the roar and raw energy of the crowd.
Let’s hope something changes the Phillies’ season around. Harper’s walk-off on Friday, perhaps, came in just the perfect time.