The Philadelphia Phillies went into St. Louis with optimism that they could get themselves back in the win column and take advantage of a banged-up Cardinals team. It didn't start off well after traveling early Friday morning to St. Louis after a near three-hour rain delay in an 11-inning loss in Atlanta. The bad fortune was just getting started and carried all throughout the weekend series against the Cardinals.
The Phillies split the first two games, dropping Game 1 2-0, then winning 4-1 on Saturday. Sunday was looking promising with ace Zack Wheeler on the mound, but even riding with one of the top arms in the NL couldn't inspire the offense to budge.
The Phillies limped through the series finale loss at Busch Stadium 7-0. Despite the rough road trip and lack of any confidence, star first baseman Bryce Harper still has trust in the immediate future of the team.
Bryce Harper responds with optimism after Phillies' offense struggles over the weekend against the Cardinals
Harper, like everyone, was not happy about dropping four of six during the road trip. The struggle has been apparent, but Harper still believes the club can turn it around and in a hurry, per MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.
“It’s tough to struggle, right?” Harper said, per Zolecki. “But, obviously, it’s the big leagues, so you’ve got try to pull out of it, and understand you’re going to go through ups and downs through the season. But try and stay as even keel as you can. Always remember, it’s not about the name on the back, it’s about the one on the front -- trying to win series, no matter what you’re doing or anything like that."
According to Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Phillies went 14-for-49 (.149) (subscription required) over the three games against the Cardinals, scraping together only three hits in each of the two shutout losses suffered on Friday and Sunday.
Harper is right, though; the ups and downs can be drastic throughout the season. Questions were bubbling to the surface after the Braves series, and now it appears the sky is sure to fall. Baseball is filled with peaks and valleys and a reset at home this week could be a good reboot for them moving forward.
The Phillies can bounce right back and have shown that even with the recent momentum killing play, they still know how to win ballgames when all is said and done. It's also not the individual performances that will make or break the team, it's the collective unit that needs to play better.
"You’ve got to keep rolling," Harper said, per Zolecki. "I don’t want to be hitting .250 right now, but obviously I want to win every day. You’ve just got to have that mindset coming in each day and try to win ballgames.”
This series also marked the first time they haven't homered in a series since Aug. 20-22 of last year in Atlanta. The power outage this weekend dropped the team OPS to .698, now 16th in MLB. Even with all the issues during the 2-4 road trip, just 15 games into the season, the Phillies sit at 9-6 and just one game out of first place in the NL East.
The wins will come and Harper and company know this is just a low point and that their winning ways will return. They haven't even played their best baseball. Once they do, they will be right back into the championship conversation.
More Phillies News from That Ball's Outta Here
manual