Sunday in South Philly: The Phillies Try to Salvage a Rough Weekend

My dad used to say the season isn’t decided in April and it isn’t decided in August, but August is where you find out what a team is made of. That’s the test in front of the Phillies this afternoon at Citizens Bank Park, where they’ll send everything they have at the Toronto Blue Jays to avoid getting swept at home in a weekend that hasn’t gone the way anybody in red pinstripes drew it up.

The Phillies dropped the first two games of this series, and neither one was easy to watch. Friday night’s opener was a rain-delayed 5-4 loss that turned into a sideshow when Toronto’s hitting coach got himself ejected arguing that Zack Wheeler’s plant foot was coming off the rubber — a complaint the Phillies swatted away with an overhead replay that showed Wheeler, as usual, doing his job. Then Saturday brought a 7-5 defeat, the kind of game where the bats woke up a couple of innings too late. Two games, two losses, and a clubhouse that knows exactly what a getaway-day sweep would feel like.

Why I’m not writing them off

Here’s the thing about this team: they sit at 62-55 and they’re still right in the middle of the NL East race and firmly in the wild-card conversation. A rough weekend against a good Toronto club doesn’t change the shape of the season. It just raises the stakes on the next nine innings. Baseball is merciful that way — there’s always another game, and today there’s one that matters more than most.

What I’ll be watching is the same thing I always watch when a team’s back is against the wall: who wants the moment. Does Bryce Harper put a charge into one early and change the temperature of the ballpark? Does the bullpen get the ball to the ninth with a lead intact? Does somebody in the bottom third of the order deliver the two-out hit that turns a quiet afternoon into a loud one? These are the games where role players become weekend heroes.

The part the standings never capture

Look up in the stands this afternoon and you’ll see the South Jersey families who made the drive over the bridge, the kids in their oversized jerseys getting their first taste of a pennant-race August, the parents explaining why this one counts. A midweek game in a lost season is entertainment. A Sunday finale with a sweep on the line, in a summer where this club still has October on its mind — that’s the real thing.

Win it, and a bad weekend becomes a footnote. Lose it, and the questions get a little louder. Either way, we find out something about this team today.Jake Sullivan

The Phillies have been in tighter spots than this and come out the other side. Now they have to prove it again, in the daylight, with the whole city watching and Toronto trying to walk out of Philadelphia with a broom. That’s exactly how August is supposed to feel.

Based on reporting from ESPN, MLB.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Yahoo Sports, and Phila Sports Wire.