The Phillies’ best 17-game start since 2019 doesn’t add up as expected. For now, thank the pitchers.

It ended, as most walk-offs do, with the victorious players spilling out of the dugout, bull-rushing the star of the moment, then jumping up and down in the baseball equivalent of a mosh pit.

But there were other images Monday night that more accurately reflect the state of the Phillies after 17 games. To wit:

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That’s how it looks when a team that was built to slug scores 60 runs in 17 games. Inside the clubhouse, voices are measured, heads raised, upper lips stiff. But outwardly, there’s frustration. It’s impossible to hide.

Yet here are the Phillies, despite scoring the fewest runs in the National League, with a 9-8 record after eking out a 2-1 victory in 10 innings over the Rockies on spare outfielder Cristian Pache’s first career walk-off hit.

Good luck reconciling that one. The Phillies actually are off to their best 17-game start since 2019 despite scoring just over 3.5 runs per game.

Not exactly what they expected, is it?

“Yeah, no,” Bryson Stott said after scoring the winning run. “Just got to keep swinging. Balls are going to fall, and things like that. As long as you’re having good at-bats, there’s always a chance for a 15-run game. We just haven’t got there yet.”

Maybe they will this week. If not, well, maybe go ahead and sound the alarms. Because the Rockies lugged the worst team ERA (6.29) in the majors into town for three games and will be followed Friday by the White Sox, who traded their best pitcher (Dylan Cease) in spring training and are off to a 2-14 start.

But there are reasons to believe the Phillies have better offense ahead. For one, the same lineup scored the fourth-most runs and hit the third-most homers in the National League last season. The first four batters — Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Harper, and Realmuto — are making a combined $98 million this year — more than half as much as the Rockies’ $143 million opening-day payroll — on the basis of their track records.

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And the Phillies have endured similar dry spells before. They scored 57 runs in 17 games from May 14 to June 1 last season and 58 runs in 17 games from July 6-27 in 2022. They went 5-12 and 8-9 during those stretches, respectively, and survived to make the playoffs.

So, no, the Phillies aren’t panicking.

“There’s some at-bats — I’ve taken some personally; everyone’s kind of taken some — that you know that’s not them,” Stott said. “And you want to get back to what you do and how you do it. I think it’ll all click once that happens.”

Meanwhile, the Phillies will keep leaning on their pitching — the starting rotation, in particular.

Aaron Nola took his turn against the Rockies. Finally pitching in baseball weather — 77 degrees at first pitch — after three starts in rain, wind, and cold, his fastball velocity returned to normal levels. And his curveball was even more wicked than usual. In allowing a solo homer in 7⅓ innings, he threw 34 curveballs and got 12 swings and misses.

While other teams are dealing with pitching injuries and scrambling to find innings, Phillies starters — Zack Wheeler, Nola, Ranger Suárez, Cristopher Sánchez, and Spencer Turnbull — have given up three earned runs or fewer in all but two games. They have yielded two runs or fewer in 11 games. Their combined ERA: 2.95.

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The hitters can thank them later.

“As pitchers, we don’t really think about that kind of stuff,” Nola said. “We can’t really control what the offense does; the offense can’t control what the pitchers do. I mean, we haven’t scored many runs, but that’s going to come, for sure. Our team’s too good. We’ve seen what our lineup can do. I don’t think anybody’s going to hang their head on that.”

Besides, there will come a time when the offense must carry the team.

For now, the Phillies must take what they get from lesser opponents and win in any way possible.

On Monday night, it was the Rockies using pitcher Kyle Freeland as a pinch-runner in the ninth inning because they had nobody else on their bench. And it was reliever Jeff Hoffman uncorking a wild pitch but lowering his shoulder to block home plate and tag Freeland to keep the game tied for Pache to eventually win it.

“Over the course of the season, there’s going to be a lot of guys picking each other up,” Hoffman said. “Right now, you could say the pitchers are doing that for the offense. We can look up a month from now and the hitters can be carrying the pitchers. We just kind of roll with the waves.

“At the end of the day, hopefully we take care of each other well enough to really win a bunch of ballgames.”