Phillies making the least out of playing in mediocre NL East | Bob Brookover

The Phillies had a chance to have a winning road trip and they couldn’t do it.

They had the opportunity to win back-to-back games for the first time since their opening 5-1 homestand and they couldn’t do that either.

And so, after a David Hale walk-off wild pitch that catcher J.T. Realmuto felt he should have blocked, the Phillies dejectedly left Busch Stadium Thursday afternoon following a 4-3, 10-inning loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Instead of being a game over .500, they are once again a game under for the fifth time in the last nine days. At 12-13, they are also near the top of the NL East, which can only be described as baseball’s most mediocre division.

“The way we’ve played, we don’t really deserve to be toward the top of the division right now,” Realmuto said. “We’re definitely fortunate to be in that position, but we also know that if we just had played a little better we would have created a little distance. But this is a really long season and we’re really early right now. The pieces are there. We just haven’t quite put it together.”

That’s the part that remains open for debate.

» READ MORE: The Phillies did not avenge Bryce Harper. They are better off for it. | David Murphy

In Atlanta, they can get away with saying they are simply off to a middling start and things will turn around. A season ago they started 11-10 and eventually got on a roll en route to winning their third straight NL East title. In 2019, the Braves were still .500 a quarter of the way through the season when they took off and left the rest of the division in the dust.

In New York, the 9-10 Mets can claim that they are trying to find the right chemistry after making a bunch of high-priced moves to improve their ball club in the offseason.

In Washington, the 9-12 Nationals can point out that they were 19-31 two years ago on their way to the franchise’s first World Series title and that the slow start by other teams in the NL East has left them in striking position.

Even the 11-13 Miami Marlins can say they were hovering around .500 at this same point last season and found a way to make the playoffs. Sure, it was a pandemic-shortened season, but at least they made the most of the expanded eight-team format.

The Phillies cannot say any of the above, but like Al Franken’s Saturday Night Live Stuart Smalley character, they keep telling themselves that they’re good enough.

“We just have to get on a roll,” Realmuto said. “It’s a game of momentum and we just haven’t been able to get on a roll and have a stretch where we can build that momentum.”

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The Phillies actually have had some bursts of momentum in the recent past, but it’s never sustainable. A year ago, with the team at 10-14, Bryce Harper said the Phillies needed “to go on a streak and win nine out of 10.” They did one better, compiling 10 wins in 11 games to put themselves in prime playoff position. They went 9-17 the rest of the season.

This season they only needed one road trip to throw away the momentum gathered during a season-opening 5-1 homestand.

The most disappointing thing about Wednesday’s loss was that it came with ace Aaron Nola on the mound. The right-hander wasn’t at the top of his game, but he was pitching well enough to win.

A fateful decision by manager Joe Girardi in the bottom of the fifth inning, however, turned the game and Nola’s outing on its side.

With the Phillies clinging to a 1-0 lead and a runner on second with two outs, Girardi ordered an intentional walk to Edmundo Sosa, a .222 career hitter who is batting .250 this season.

For Girardi, it was about the matchup that awaited Nola on deck. The Cardinals sent the long struggling Matt Carpenter to the plate as a pinch-hitter for pitcher Kwang Hyun Kim. Not only was Carpenter coming to the plate with a .073 average this season, he was also hitting .158 (3-for-19) with nine strikeouts in his career against Nola.

Make it 4-for-20 with a three-run home run.

“This game is on me,” Girardi said. “I was the one who chose to walk Sosa to get to Carpenter. I looked at the success that (Nola) had against him and it didn’t work out, so this one is on me.”

Not entirely. With both Harper and Didi Gregorius sidelined at least for a day after being drilled by Cardinals reliever Genesis Cabrera Wednesday night, Girardi was managing with one hand tied behind his back.

Both Nola and Realmuto were displeased with the pitch that Carpenter hit into the St. Louis bullpen after it deflected off the palm of right fielder Roman Quinn’s glove as he attempted to make a leaping catch.

“It wasn’t one of Nola’s best breaking balls of the day,” Realmuto said. “The location wasn’t horrible. He’s had a lot of success against Carpenter in the past with that breaking ball. That’s really the first good swing he put on it.”

It was a really good swing.

“It hung up there too long,” Nola said.

The Phillies pulled even in the seventh inning, but that just set the stage for another disturbing ending to another Phillies road trip.

In the top of the 10th, Matt Joyce made a horrible baserunning gaffe when he tried to advance from second to third on a flyball to center field by Rhys Hoskins. Instead, it turned into an inning-ending double play with the hot-hitting Realmuto due up next.

In the bottom of the inning, the Cardinals scored the winning run on a wild pitch by Hale that Realmuto could not block.

“Yeah, that’s my job,” the catcher said. “That guy has to have the confidence to throw that pitch in the dirt with a man on third and he did. It’s my job, what I get paid to do, to keep that ball in front. Just let the team down. It’s tough. It’s been a roller coaster. It’s definitely a frustrating stretch we’ve been in.”

A hamster wheel is the better description. The Phillies haven’t really been moving at all, but they are fortunate to be near the top of their disappointing division.