[ad_1]
The Phillies’ deficit in the National League East fell to 4½ games with just 21 left in a humiliating 11-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Friday night.
Manager Joe Girardi was boiling quietly after the loss, his team’s fourth in a row.
“I’m just unhappy with the way we’re playing,” he said. “I don’t really want to talk about it publicly. I’m just not happy with the way we’re playing.”
Moments later, Bryce Harper was asked about the manager’s anger.
“Definitely justified,” Harper said. “We’ve just been beaten by the Colorado Rockies twice. In fact, we blew ourselves up today. It’s certainly justified, the way he feels. The irritation is there. The embarrassment is there. is there too.
“It’s not good. It’s not good, the way we approach the game. It’s not good the way our hitters, our shots, everything. It’s just not good. right now.
“Overall we have to be better. Individually I have to be better. We don’t have time to sit and wait and see what’s going to happen. We have to win games. We have to beat. teams when they come to our stadium We can’t be embarrassed like we did this evening so late in the season.
“We played two good pitchers (Thursday and Friday night). But this is our home stadium and we should definitely be embarrassed by the way we played in front of our fans tonight.”
While sounding the alarm bells for the team to play better, Harper remained confident the Phils still have a chance to catch the Braves in first place.
“We just need to be within striking distance when we get to Atlanta (for a three-game series on September 28),” he said. “The Braves are a great team. We just need to mind our own business.
“We have to be better. It’s the simple truth. Throwing, hitting, playing every day has to be better. To be a team, to be a whole, not to worry about individual numbers or if you are a free agent or go to refereeing. You can’t worry about all that. You worry about the team as a whole and what we can do to improve the Phillies and the team as a whole. “
While Harper used the word “embarrassment” to describe Friday night’s loss, the embarrassment in embarrassment is that the Phillies don’t have enough starting pitchers to spend the last month of the season in a scramble. playoffs. Zach Eflin is out for the season and with no starting pitch depth – at least none that no one trusts – the Phils are forced to use a reliever cast every five games.
They got away with it Sunday in Miami, but not Friday night at home against a team that came in 19-50 on the road.
Seven Phillies relievers have been scored for 10 hits and three homers. One of the home runs was a grand slam that saw the Rockies lead 11-0 in the start of the ninth.
The Phillies plan to use the bullpen to get past four of the remaining 21 starts.
Was Friday night ugly enough to make Girardi rethink the plan?
“I am worried about tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll worry about tomorrow, and then we’ll rethink it when we have to rethink it.”
The Phillies scored two draws in the bottom of the ninth, one on a Didi Gregorius homeroom. When Gregorius returned to the dugout, Harper crowned him with the team’s traditional circuit hat, although there wasn’t much to celebrate after 10 points.
“We’ve been doing it all year round,” Harper said. “We are not going to change what we are doing.”
Even in a rash?
“Yes,” Harper said.
Girardi was asked if he thinks the circuit hat represents a bad look when the team takes him by the chin by 10 points.
At first he didn’t answer the question directly, but the answer he gave may have offered a glimpse of what was gnawing at him.
“The problem with winning baseball is you move the line,” Girardi said. “That’s how you win games. You get people on the base and you put pressure on the other team and you move the line.”
He added: “I don’t really care about the hat.”
But clearly Girardi cares that his team have good batsmen and they have been in short supply lately. The Phils scored just six points in their four-game losing streak. They had eight hits and walked six times on Friday night, but they were 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position and left 12 men on base.
Girardi wasn’t impressed with his team’s offense on Friday night as he couldn’t even talk about manager when asked what made opposing starter German Marquez effective over six white innings.
“Not sure,” Girardi said. “I am not sure.”
If something else was bothering Girardi – you know, the energy, the effort, the urgency, or the lack of those qualities – he wouldn’t say it.
“I’m not going to talk about it publicly,” he said. “We will take care of it.
“I’m just not happy. I hate to lose.”
Subscribe to Phillies Talk: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Stapler | Art19 | Watch on YouTube
[ad_2]
Source link