The Philadelphia Phillies are in the middle of their biggest skid of the season. The things that they were able to rely on early are faltering. The pitching keeps blowing valuable leads and the offense goes completely silent for innings at a time.
After losing Wednesday's series finale to the New York Yankees, the Phillies finished July 10-14 and are a measly 20-23 since their trip across the pond to London. The Phillies now have a record of 65-43.
The stars have forgotten to bring their bats to the ballpark, especially the top three in the lineup. Before Wednesday's game, Schwarber, Turner and Harper are hitting a combined .128 with a sub-.700 OPS since the All-Star break.
Phillies Playoff Odds: Despite struggles, Phillies still in solid playoff position
After the gut-wrenching 12-inning 7-6 loss on Tuesday night, followed by the 6-5 loss in the series finale, let's look at the most recent FanGraphs playoff odds and see how so much has changed and yet not much at all since our last update at the end of June.
The MLB trade deadline has come and gone, and the Phillies have added Austin Hays from the Baltimore Orioles and Carlos Estévez from the Los Angeles Angels. There were a couple of last-minute deals before the deadline, per MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.
The Atlanta Braves have been trying to chip away at the Phillies' lead for the division for quite some time. Just as the Phillies started to slide, the Braves started losing as well. What was supposed to be a bounce-back month for the Phillies after dealing with multiple injuries, has turned into a nightmarish scenario. Their pitching staff ranked 26th in July with an ERA of 5.21. The lineup's OPS has been more middle-tier, ranking 18th at .722.
Heres an updated look at the National League East.
Team | Make Playoffs | Win World Series |
|---|---|---|
Phillies | 99.4% | 14.5% |
Braves | 82.1% | 7.3% |
Mets | 50.2% | 1.9% |
Nationals | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Marlins | 0.0% | 0.0% |
The Phillies have slid and looked like a shell of themselves in recent weeks. The All-Stars who went to Texas have not returned with the same fire they had been displaying earlier. The Phillies' division lead has slightly shrunk to 6.5 games ahead of the Braves. The Phillies also gained 1.2 percentage points in their odds of winning the World Series odds since July 1.
How does the rest of the National League look? Here's where the top teams currently stand.
Team | Make Playoffs | Win World Series |
|---|---|---|
Phillies | 99.5% | 14.5% |
Dodgers | 98.6% | 15.4% |
Brewers | 83.4% | 3.3% |
Braves | 82.1% | 7.3% |
Padres | 66.4% | 4.8% |
Diamondbacks | 55.4% | 3.2% |
The division crown has been the one thing that Phillies fans were hoping to maintain a hold of. With the team's recent struggles, just trying to get back into the win column has been rough at times. They're not in free fall yet, as hard as that is to believe, and the Phillies will look to have a much better August and officially turn the page.