Phillies manager Joe Girardi is done talk about how easy their remaining schedule is supposed to be
The Philadelphia Phillies are supposed to have one of the easiest remaining schedules of any MLB team. Of course, that means nothing if they don’t capitalize on it and beat up on lesser teams, instead of letting bad teams make them look bad.
Of course, on any given night, any team can get you. After all, the Arizona Diamondbacks no-hit the San Diego Padres over the weekend; anything is possible.
But after the Phillies dropped the series opener against the DBacks 3-2 on Tuesday, manager Joe Girardi made it clear that he’s done with the schedule talk:
"“I don’t want to hear about the schedule. No more. I don’t want to hear it.”"
Girardi went on to criticize pretty much every facet of his team’s play:
"“No matter who you play, if you don’t hit, and if you don’t pitch, and you don’t run the bases, and you don’t play defense, you’re gonna lose in this league. That’s the bottom line.”"
He’s not wrong. The Phillies should’ve demolished the DBacks on Tuesday. Instead, they only managed two runs and lost. They looked lifeless against one of the most lifeless teams in the game, a team that was a seller at the deadline, and still hasn’t won 40 games. Since kicking off the month with an eight-game winning streak, the Phils are 2-5.
The Phillies’ remaining schedule has been a hot-button topic over the last few weeks. In September, they’ll face a plethora of losing teams, including the Cubs, Pirates, Orioles, and Rockies. They have six more games against the Diamondbacks before the end of August.
They also have games against their division rivals in which they could make up serious ground: back-to-back series against the Nationals and Marlins at the end of August/beginning of September. If they do heat up and beat up on some of these losing teams, their season could come down to the wire: their last two series are inter-divisional, against the Braves and Marlins.
Just don’t bring it up to Girardi.