The Opening Day vibes around the Philadelphia Phillies were, generally speaking, immaculate. Justin Crawford's debut was electric, Christopher Sánchez looked worth every penny of his new contract in a historic outing, and Jhoan Duran was able to escape some ninth-inning trouble to secure the victory.
Since then, however, the vibes have been less than stellar. The team's 11th-hour comeback in the second game of the series fell just short, while former Phillies slugger Andrew McCutchen keyed a Texas Rangers offensive onslaught in the rubber match.
These early losses aren't the end of the world; there's still 158 games to go before the playoffs. Yet, they resurrected a question that has hung over this franchise for some time: Can the Phillies' offense get going when the stars aren't on top of their game?
Phillies' offense must diversify its portfolio of production after first-week duds
It's not like the "role players" didn't put forth their best effort. Alec Bohm posted an .885 OPS against the Rangers, and Bryston Stott nearly matched him with a 140 wRC+. Even Brandon Marsh (170 wRC+) and Justin Crawford (.400 OBP) did what they could from the bottom of the lineup.
But it's really, really difficult to make up for the the team's three best players (Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, and Kyle Schwarber) all submitting OPS figures below .550. Remove Schwarber's Opening Day home run from the equation, and that trio all had single-digit wRC+ numbers in the opening series. That's unacceptable.
In baseball, though, such slumps happen from time to time. When they do, it falls on the rest of the lineup to pick up the slack. And, try as they might, the Phillies' other hitters couldn't muster enough offense to beat a good team.
On a game-by-game level, the issue is even more glaring. On Opening Day, Harper went hitless, but Turner and Schwarber went a combined 3-for-8 with the aforementioned home run, providing enough firepower atop the lineup to make Bohm's three-run homer a decisive one.
The script flipped in the second game of the series and it showed. The Turner-Schwarber-Harper triumvirate went a combined 1-for-15 as the Rangers completely stymied the Phillies until a miraculous ninth-inning comeback. A subpar 10th inning from Duran ended any hopes of a victory, though.
The lifeless offense reared its ugly head again in the finale, with our favorite trio producing one hit in 10 tries (though they did at least draw three walks). The middle of the lineup, led by Bohm and Stott, evaded the shutout, but the game was practically in hand by the time they started to chip away.
Over the course of a full season, you expect that Turner, Schwarber, and Harper will all turn in well-above-average numbers. Small sample sizes are the bane of any baseball analyst's existence.
But the postseason is a small sample, too. And pitching staffs as good as the Rangers' become the norm, not the exception. The Phillies are going to need to get some heroics from the other six guys in the lineup, lest they leave their fate in the hands of just three players... again.