April 08, 2026
The Phillies' offense continues to be completely unreliable, inconsistent and detrimental. And their defense. And unfortunately for them in their 2-1 series loss against the Giants this week, the starting pitching too.
Aaron Nola technically posted a quality start in Wednesday's finale, but a 5-0 loss wasted his third solid outing. The day before, ace Cris Sánchez allowed double digit hits, and the day before rookie Andrew Painter didn't make it to a fifth inning.
Just six runs — all scored in the series opener —from a 6-6 team that now has a negative-15 run differential. That's 20 straight innings without a run.
It wasn't great.
The Phillies get a needed day off before hosting the Diamondbacks, Cubs and Braves with a nice nine-game homestand starting Friday.
The pickins' were slim, but here's a few winners and losers from the series:
Bryce Harper
After a brutally slow start to the year, Harper showed up in San Francisco. In the series opener, the former MVP led the charge in an epic late-innings comeback, reaching base four times. He had two doubles, a single and three timely RBI after the Phils fell behind 4-0. In their shutout loss in the middle game Harper provided one of Philadelphia's four lone hits. And in the finale he reached base twice with a walk and hit as the offense fell flat for the second straight game.
Harper's bat is on fire and if it continues when the team returns home to face the D'Backs perhaps it'll quiet some of his early season critics. We intended to have more winners. The Phillies didn't cooperate.
Phillies against lefties
The Phillies are 0-4 when facing a left-handed pitcher. On Tuesday, they mustered four hits and squandered four free passes to score zero runs. And it's just as bad when lefty relievers are on the mound. Here's the team's stats against lefty pitchers (not including going 0-for-5 with a walk against Giants relievers Matt Gage and Erik Miller Wednesday):
| Category | Stat | MLB Rank |
| Batting average | .158 | 32nd |
| On base % | .268 | 4th |
| Slugging | .242 | 31st |
| Home runs | 2 | 18th |
| Wins | 0 | 32nd |
It's also not surprising that the Phillies are facing a particularly high number of left-handed pitchers. The book on how to beat the Phillies is pretty simple right now — and the offense needs to figure it out.
The defense
Trea Turner committed two errors in Game 2 of the series, and catcher Rafael Marchán made a throwing error in relief of injured J.T Realmuto — and as a result four of the Giants' six runs in the game were of the unearned variety.
Reliever José Alvarado also got in a mix in the series finale, with a throwing error that led to a Giants' run.
Through 11 games, the defense as a whole ranks dead last in the majors with a .640 defensive efficiency (via baseball reference). They're inside the top 10 for most errors committed and have turned just five double plays — tied for fifth fewest in the sport.
When the offense put runs on the board, errors can be overlooked. This has always been an offense built on being aggressive and scoring runs. But with the team's identity turning into a pitch-first club, the defense has not been up to par.
Cris Sánchez
It's a shock to see Sánchez, the NL Cy Young runner up listed as loser, ever. He was excellent in his first two starts this season and looks like the same guy who has burst onto the scene as one of the league's best and most reliable starters. But by his standards, his performance Tuesday was dreadful. He allowed 11 hits (but somehow was only hit for two earned runs).
Still, he had six strikeouts to add to the second highest total in the National League (23) and he did not issue a free pass in the loss. He'll bounce back.
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