PHILADELPHIA -- Don Mattingly made the same point four times in 90 seconds, so he must have meant it.
“Now’s the time that we're going to find out what we're made of,” the Phillies' interim manager said following Wednesday’s 8-6 loss to the Marlins at loanDepot park. “There’s a struggle. We let everybody stay in the race. So, we find out who we are these next couple months.
“I think we’ll find out who we are at this point. ... At this point it’s, find out who we are.”
The Phillies have not been a good team since Philly hosted the All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park on July 14. They are 3-9 since then. They have scored one or zero runs in half those games.
It’s all happening just days before Monday’s 6 p.m. ET Trade Deadline.
Nobody would have expected this to happen in Miami. The Marlins had lost a franchise-record 12 consecutive games entering the series, so it looked like an excellent opportunity to start winning again. Instead, the Phillies got swept to fall into a tie with Arizona for the second and third NL Wild Card spots.
The Padres, Pirates, Marlins and Nationals are well within striking distance.
The Phillies blew a six-run lead and lost for the first time since Aug. 29, 2022, in Arizona, when they had a 7-0 lead and lost, 13-7.
Cristopher Sánchez pitched in relief of Ranger Suarez that day.
“Frustrating,” Phillies left-hander Jesús Luzardo said. “Obviously, you never like to get swept, especially with the team that we have. But I mean, it is what it is. You can't go back and change time.”
The Phillies have been here before. Sort of. They lost 10 consecutive games in late April, which cost former manager Rob Thomson his job. The Phils had a minus-43 run differential during that skid as the offense posted a .601 OPS and the pitching staff had a 6.46 ERA.
By the numbers, this 12-game stretch is different. They have a minus-5 run differential, despite a wildly inconsistent offense. The offense has a .717 OPS. The pitching staff has a 4.53 ERA.
“We were talking about it,” Trea Turner said. “It feels like we're in all these games. When we lost those 10 in row, I felt like we were just beating ourselves, if I remember correctly. But it feels like a lot of these losses are close games. A play here or there or something that we could do on our end changes the outcome. I guess that could be viewed as better. Early, when those things happen, you try to learn from it. And now at this point in the year, you’ve got to find a way to win ballgames. It’s kind of ‘go’ time.”
Luzardo allowed a leadoff double in the fifth with the Phillies holding a 6-0 lead. He hit eight-hole hitter Brian Navarreto with a pitch, then allowed a two-out, two-run home run to Heriberto Hernández to cut the Phillies’ lead to 6-3.
Luzardo allowed a leadoff single in the seventh, walked nine-hole hitter Jakob Marsee with one out, then allowed a run-scoring single to Otto Lopez to cut the Phillies’ lead to 6-4.
Orion Kerkering and José Alvarado were unavailable to pitch, so Mattingly had Seth Johnson face Hernández. Johnson entered the game with a 5.74 ERA in 15 appearances.
He got Hernández to pop out for the second out, but then he walked Liam Hicks on five pitches to load the bases. Xavier Edwards’ single to left field scored two runs to tie the game. If he could do it again, Mattingly might go with Jonathan Bowlan in the seventh inning instead.
But Griffin Conine hit a two-run homer in the eighth against Bowlan to give the Marlins the lead.
“It just comes down to we're not playing well enough,” Turner said.
The Phillies flew to Baltimore on Wednesday night. They will have Thursday off, then resume play on Friday against the Orioles. Phillies front office officials will join president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski in Baltimore to try to make a few trades before the Deadline.
They could use reinforcements. No matter what they do, though, they need to play better.
“It’s just frustrating, but you’ve to figure a way out of it,” Turner said. “We expect better of ourselves.”