Phillies need to find a way to make do until Bryce Harper and the cavalry arrive

It was supposed to be a celebratory gesture, but the longer you looked at Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins, the more you had to contemplate the difference that an abbreviated offseason can make. The last time either of them had donned a uniform at Citizens Bank Park, six months earlier, they were two of the biggest reasons the Phillies were still playing baseball. On Friday afternoon, they were standing in the center field concourse, 500 feet from the home dugout, one of them on crutches, the other with a surgically-repaired ulnar collateral ligament in his arm.

“It was a pretty cool moment,” Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm said a few hours after Hoskins and Harper raised the blue 2022 banner that will fly above center field all season.

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And it was. A worthy one, too. The Phillies organization has always had a keen feel for moments like this. Incorporating Harper and Hoskins into their commemoration of last year’s World Series run was the perfect way to open up another season at home. At the same time, it served as a lingering reminder of the significant challenges this new season holds.

We will know a lot more in a month, maybe two. Three days ago, the Phillies had a four-game losing streak. Today, they’ll awake as winners of two of three, thanks to a couple of late home runs that propelled them to a 5-2 victory over the Reds. They are 1-0 at home, and I suppose that counts for something. But good luck interpreting what it really means.

This is true for most major league teams at this time of year. In a right and just world, April baseball would not exist north of the Mason-Dixon line. It probably wouldn’t exist in any form. Nothing is fun when the sky is overcast and the feels-like temperature is in the 40′s. Swinging a bat, throwing a ball, sitting in the stands as others do both. It’s better than the alternative, sure. But baseball is a sport that derives much of its energy from its environment. Like that environment, this next calendar month is mostly a process of knocking off the rust.

This is an important thing to keep in mind when you look at the standings and see the Phillies sitting at 2-5. It may not be the most ideal way to start a season, and the losses may not come at a discount, but we wouldn’t know any more about this team if they were sitting at 5-2. At some point in the next month or two, Harper is expected to return to the lineup, bringing with him a bat that can single-handedly change the trajectory of a season. It remains to be seen whether he is joined by another of those Boys of October, but Ranger Suárez’s return to the rotation has the potential to yield equally great things.

In the absence of greater clarity on both of those fronts, the Phillies will need to continue to be the team they have been for the greater part of the last five games. That is, a team that does its best to make do.

They did it on Friday, on a number of different fronts.

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Zack Wheeler’s stuff wasn’t his best, but it was better than it was. After the veteran starter allowed a game-tying double in the sixth, reliever Andrew Bellatti came on to record the inning’s final two outs with the go-ahead run in scoring position. The rest of the bullpen handled things from there. Gregory Soto did it adequately, recording three outs on 11 pitches in the seventh. Jose Alvarado did it splendidly, striking out the side in the eighth. Craig Kimbrel did it nerve-wrackingly, allowing a leadoff single and a two-out walk before getting Jose Barrero to ground into a force out to complete the save.

Offensively, the lineup continues to hit better than the scoreboard would suggest. The Phillies entered the day ranked 23rd in the majors with a .220 batting average with runners in scoring position and that number only got worse with Friday’s 1-for-10. But, then, 10 runners in scoring position is something, particularly with a rejuvenated Nick Castellanos leading the charge (2-for-3, a double, a walk, a run). The big blow finally came in the seventh, when J.T. Realmuto’s two-run home run lifted the Phillies to a 4-2 lead. One inning later, Edmundo Sosa tacked on a solo shot.

“I feel like at times we’ve done a lot of good things,” said shortstop Trea Turner, who was making the first of what the Phillies are contractually obligated to hope will be 11 years worth of starts at Citizens Bank Park. “We’ve gotten a lot of hits but haven’t necessarily scored. We’ve made some plays on defense, pitched at times and this and that. We just have to kind of put it all together.”

If it is going to come down to the pitching, which it usually does, then the Phillies have to feel buoyed by what they’ve seen in recent days. The combination of Wheeler’s performance on Friday and Aaron Nola’s solid start a couple of days earlier suggest that the team’s pair of aces are on the verge of finding their usual groove. Both of those outings came on the heels of an impressive start out of converted reliever Matt Strahm, who was forced into the rotation due to Suarez’s ongoing elbow problem.

Which brings us back to the things that will actually have an impact on the Phillies’ eventual fate. With Suárez throwing bullpens and Harper taking batting practice, there are some signs that the fort may yet be held. Five losses in seven is not how they drew it up. But the big picture is what matters most right now. And as 2022 taught us, we haven’t come close to seeing it yet.

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