The Phillies Go Out With a Whimper

The Philadelphia Phillies started off the 2024 season with a bang.

They were the first team in MLB to reach 20 wins. By early May, they had sole possession of first place in the NL East. They never gave it up.

At the end of the first half, the Phillies had the best record in baseball. Eight of their players were selected to the All-Star team, a new franchise record.

On September 23, the Phillies clinched the NL East for the first time since 2011. They finished with 95 wins for just the sixth time in team history. Their 95-67 record was second only to the Los Angeles Dodgers. They earned free passage to the NLDS.

You could have made a convincing case they were the World Series favorites.

And then they went out with a whimper.

Facing the New York Mets for the first time ever in a postseason series, the Phillies crumpled.

The NL East champs lost the NLDS to their long-time rivals in four games. They were outscored 23-12. Their lineup went 24-for-129 (.186) with a .598 OPS. Their bullpen had an 11.37 ERA.

There isn’t even anywhere specific for fans to direct the blame, because the Phillies came up short in almost every respect. You could say that was the defining theme of the series. The Mets came through time and again. They made the most of their opportunities. The Phillies didn’t.

Even the few things that went well for Philadelphia only made the crushing disappointment all the more pronounced.

Zack Wheeler was extraordinary in Game 1. Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos sparked a thrilling come-from-behind victory in Game 2. But, of course, none of that was enough. Not even close.

This Wasn’t David and Goliath

To give credit where it’s due, the Mets played a terrific series. Their pitching staff held strong. Their bats were relentless. That doesn’t mean the Phillies weren’t thoroughly disappointing – believe me, they were – but focusing only on one team’s poor performance wouldn’t tell the full story.

After all, this wasn’t a David and Goliath-style matchup.

On May 28, the Phillies were 38-18 (.679). They had the best record in baseball. The Mets were 22-32 (.407), better than only four teams: the White Sox, Marlins, Rockies, and Angels.

These two clubs were on completely different trajectories. The Phillies were on fire. The Mets were a tire fire. At that time, a David and Goliath narrative wouldn’t have been so far off.

Yet, from May 29 through the end of the regular season, it was the Mets that had the best record in MLB. They were nine games better than the Phillies in that time.

And that’s not just an arbitrary time frame. The Mets played 108 games over that span. That’s exactly two-thirds of a 162-game season.

Let me repeat myself: The Mets had the best record in baseball over the final two-thirds of the season. That’s no underdog.

Mets and Phillies Regular Season Stats (May 29 – Sept. 30)

The first third of the season means something, too. There’s a reason the Phillies were still the favorites entering the NLDS, and it wasn’t just because they had home-field advantage. They genuinely seemed like the better baseball team.

But it’s not like they just dropped a postseason series to the White Sox.

The Phillies played poorly in the NLDS. The Mets played really, really well. Both can be true.

The 2024 Philadelphia Phillies: NL East Champions

Phillies fans will wallow in the disappointment of this early exit for a while. It’s what we do. But once some time has passed, I hope the memory of winning the division, not losing in the playoffs, is what the fanbase remembers most about the 2024 season.

I hope fans show up to the ballpark next year ready to jeer the Mets and Braves and remind them who owns the East.

Flags fly forever, as they say, and next year, the Phillies will have a brand new division title flag waving in the wind at Citizens Bank Park. It’s not the Commissioner’s Trophy, but it’s a pretty nice consolation prize.

And it will be a great reminder that this team still has the talent to go back out there and make another run in 2025.