Phillies swept in season series with Cubs but still hold final wild-card spot

CHICAGO — The Phillies’ Nick Maton stepped up to the plate with two outs in the second inning on Thursday. Jean Segura was on first base. Maton took one pitch, and then another, and then one more, which he tried to bunt, but pulled his bat back.

The scoreboard showed that the count was 3-1 on that last pitch, which was out of the zone, so Maton started to walk toward first base, and Segura began to jog to second base. But the scoreboard was wrong, and Segura was tagged out to end the inning.

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“I just saw on the scoreboard, 3-1, and when I looked it was actually No. 4 on the board, so I thought it was ball four,” Segura said. “It was my mistake.”

It was a chaotic, confusing series of events but also the perfect encapsulation of the Phillies’ last six games — all losses, including a 2-0 defeat on Thursday — against the Cubs this season. A team that has won the season series against the Padres and the Dodgers has looked completely off-kilter against a Cubs team that will finish its season below .500. A Phillies team that has led baseball in scoring with runners in scoring position has suddenly lost the ability to do so. Their defense is sloppy, their pitching has looked more vulnerable than it has in weeks past, and it’s all happening at the worst possible time, when every game matters, as they try to end a 10-year playoff drought.

The Phillies, who have lost 10 of their last 13 games, still lead the Brewers by a half-game for the third National League wild-card spot, after a grand slam by Avisaíl Garcia led the Marlins over the Brewers 4-2 on Thursday night. The Phillies own the tiebreaker over Milwaukee because they won the season series.

Over the course of this season, the Phillies have prided themselves on being a team that can never be counted out. But against the Cubs, even the smallest leads have seemed insurmountable. A lineup that features Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins, and J.T. Realmuto in its first four spots should be able to score three or four runs. But the Phillies were only able to cobble together six hits on Thursday — all of them singles.

This is a team built on its offense. The slogan entering the season was “Smash the Bell.” But, above all else, it is their offense that has failed them down the stretch. The Phillies went 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position on Wednesday and 0-for-5 on Thursday. In the sixth inning, they had two on and no outs and failed to score. They haven’t hit a home run since Sunday.

“I think we’re pushing too much, pressuring ourselves,” Segura said. “I think when we’ve got guys in scoring position, we’re trying to do too much, including myself. I feel like everybody is trying so hard to get the job done, and sometimes when you try too hard, the result isn’t going to happen. You have to relax and enjoy the game, have fun. I know it’s hard to have fun when you’re losing.

“I don’t think that’s a team we should score three runs [against] in three games. That’s bad. We’ve got way too many good hitters here to score three runs [in three games] against that team. To be honest, it’s embarrassing.”

Maton and Segura losing track of the count set the tone for the Phillies loss, but it was hardly their only blunder. In the fifth inning, center fielder Brandon Marsh lost a ball in the sun that put the Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki on third base, and he was driven home on an RBI single by Ian Happ in the next at-bat. It was the second time Marsh lost a ball in the sun in the last four games.

The Phillies still could make the playoffs, simply by relying on the Brewers to lose. But how do you celebrate a postseason berth that comes as a byproduct of another team’s ineptitude? Does a playoff berth constitute a successful season, no matter how you get there? These are some of the questions the Phillies will face if they don’t do serious damage in their final two series of the regular season, in Washington beginning Friday and in Houston.

“I don’t think any guy on this team has that mindset of, ‘Oh, here we go again,’” Harper said. “Different group of guys. Different team. We’re ready to just get on with this series and get going into D.C. and play the best baseball we can. We have some work ahead of us. We know that. But, at the same time, we’re in this. We’re ready to go.”

The energy in the clubhouse still is positive, and that is by design. The Phillies are trying not to press, not to buckle under the pressure of fending off what could be a historic collapse. On Wednesday night, they were blasting reggae. On Thursday morning, it was ‘90s R&B. The players did their crossword puzzles, just like they do before every game.

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It’s not a picture of desperation, and the Phillies have been quick to remind the media that they are in the driver’s seat. But that could change if they don’t start winning soon.

When asked whether there is any more urgency now given that the Phillies are nearing the end of the season, interim manager Rob Thomson said Sunday that there is not. He said his team is calm. But even if that’s true, what the Phillies are showing on the field is not a quiet confidence. It’s a quiet collapse.

Starting pitcher Ranger Suárez got off to a bumpy start, giving up two hits and an RBI double to Patrick Wisdom in the first. But with Happ on third base, he tossed the ball to J.T. Realmuto to tag out Happ at home on a fielder’s choice and induced a lineout in the next at-bat to end the inning.

Suarez allowed four hits and one walk over his next five innings. He finished his day at six innings, allowing seven hits, two runs and one walk with five strikeouts. He did run his pitch count up, though. Sanchez threw 92 pitches with 55 strikes.

“I thought he was good,” Thomson said. “He started off, they hit some balls hard off him early. But he settled in pretty good. He really started to pitch. That’s Ranger. He bends and he doesn’t break most of the time. That was really good to see.”