Phillies Suddenly Having Deja Vu in the Worst Possible Way

The Philadelphia Phillies entered the eighth inning of Sunday's matchup against the Atlanta Braves with a 4-1 lead. Then, everything unraveled.

Alex McFarlane got shelled for three runs in the eighth, and the ever-reliable Jhoan Duran surrendered another run in the final frame, resulting in a devastating 5-4 loss.

Now, the best the Phillies can do is split this four-game series with the Braves, and they can probably kiss their NL East hopes goodbye in the process.

Philadelphia went into this set four games back of Atlanta. The Phils were hoping to, at the very least, take three out of four to further close the gap. Instead, the chasm has widened.

And why? Because of some very familiar problems that have resurfaced.

The Phillies have scored a grand total of 10 runs in this series, and their bullpen once again looks vulnerable. Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola both looked great in these last two outings, but unfortunately for Nola, he didn't get enough support.

Philadelphia has built up enough good will over the last month where we can just chalk these couple of losses up to chance. Sometimes, it happens. But unfortunately for the Phillies, it occurred against the one team they needed to beat the most.

Splitting the series wouldn't be horrendous, but it obviously wasn't the mission. And right now, the Braves appear to be the more complete ballclub. There is no doubt about it.

Philadelphia has been plagued by debilitating issues for most of the year, but recently, it seemed as if Don Mattingly's club had solved them. The offense had come around, the starting rotation had improved and the bullpen was no longer as shaky.

But things have certainly flipped over the weekend.

The Phillies will obviously need more timely hitting in October. They'll also need more players getting on base in general. They've shown their capable of it. They just need to do it consistently.

“We need to split the series with these guys, and just take it game by game,” Nola said after the third game, via Charlotte Varnes of The Athletic. “It’s baseball, and they played a good game late and obviously beat us today. We’ve got to come out tomorrow and compete, and it’ll be a good battle tomorrow.”

That much is true. But this series also may have exposed that the flaws we saw over the first several months of the campaign have not entirely subsided.