The Phillies ended the regular season with the second best record in the league, just behind the 98-win Los Angeles Dodgers. However the season wasn’t without its ups and downs.
The Phillies ended the first month of the regular season 20-11 before they had a massive month of May where they went 20-7.
Phillies star first baseman Bryce Harper led the team in almost every offensive category with Ranger Suarez having a breakout start of the year by posting a 1.84 ERA three months into the season.
However once July hit, everything went downhill, as injuries wrecked the Phillies.
Bryce Harper, Ranger Suarez and J.T. Realmuto spent time on the injured list for multiple weeks and the Phillies had an awful record of 10-14 through the month of July.
While the Phillies still had the best record in baseball at the time, the fan outlook wasn’t very happy as multiple pitchers were not performing as they should have.
Most notably Taijuan Walker, who is getting paid $18 million during the 2024 season just to pitch to an abysmal 6.63 ERA.
The Phillies refused to punish Walker for his awful play and accepted the losses that came when he pitched.
When Walker pitched, the Phillies lost nine straight games that Walker started.
Walker wasn’t the only Phillies player to be underperforming, Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, Bryson Stott, and Kyle Schwarber all played under expectations.
Turner and Stott were supposed to be high average players batting anywhere from 0.300-0.330 batting average, but Turner batted 0.290 and Stott batted an embarrassing 0.230.
Harper and Schwarber are both the Phillies two best home run hitters, however they both went on multiple 10-plus game stretches where they didn’t hit a home run.
They both had the longest home run droughts of their career July-September.15-13 and 15-11 respectively.
Wheeler and Cristopher Sanchez were a bright light in the brutal months of July and August for the Phillies. Wheeler pitched to a 2.57 ERA in August and Sanchez pitched a 1.92 ERA in August.
After all the ups and downs, the Phillies clinched playoffs on September 20th and clinched the National League East division title on September 23. The Phillies haven’t won a National League East title in 13 years, since they won it back in 2011 where they won over 100 games.
The Phillies earned a first round bye in the playoffs and won’t play a baseball game from September 29 to October 5. The Phillies in the past two years have made the World Series and the Nation League Conference Series respectively.
Fans and players will unfortunately have to wait another year for a championship as the Phillies lost to the Mets three games to one in the National League divisional series.