The teetering Phillies confront a harsh truth: They have not been good enough in October. Again

PHILADELPHIA — When it was all over, Trea Turner held his red helmet above his head. The last gasps of this ballpark, potentially until 2026, were screams and boos and then silence. Turner lowered his arms. The disbelief overcame him Monday night. The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrated a two-game lead over the Phillies in the National League Division Series, and as Turner neared the dugout steps, the anger returned. He cocked his arms backward and prepared to spike his helmet.

He couldn’t do it.

“Trust me,” Turner said, “I wanted to.”

There was wreckage everywhere in the immediate moments that followed a crushing 4-3 loss that will cast doubt on everything the Phillies have built here. They are nine innings from this thing ending, and everyone who boards the club’s charter flights Tuesday morning to California knows the harsh truth. The Phillies have not been good enough in October, whether it’s the stars, the bullpen, the manager — all of it. The Dodgers are the standard; there is not a massive gulf between the sides, but there is a gap. Two games at Citizens Bank Park proved that.

The Phillies are on the brink.

“I mean, at this point, just win one game,” Alec Bohm said. “That’s all we can think about. It’s just too big picture to think, like, ‘We have to win three in a row.’ Just go win one game.”

The reality hit him.

“On the other hand, too, it could be the last time this group gets to play together,” Bohm said. “The whole, full 26-man roster, for sure. But the core group, I think it would just be best if we go out and just enjoy, possibly, the last time we get to play together.”

So this is how it ends. Maybe that’s the rallying point. “If it works, it works,” Bohm said. “But I don’t think anybody in here believes we’re done. I know that. I know we still have a game on the schedule.” The Phillies know there will be widespread changes if they cannot do the improbable and win the next three games against the defending champions. They should not be judged on running into a buzzsaw, but that’s what team officials said last October when the red-hot New York Mets ran through them.

For 18 innings, Los Angeles has exposed all of the cracks.

Nick Castellanos stands on second after a two-RBI double in the ninth. He was thrown out at third trying to advance on Bryson Stott’s bunt. (Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)

There will be debates, for months, about manager Rob Thomson’s decision to ask Bryson Stott to bunt against a lefty reliever with no outs and the tying run on second base in the ninth inning. The Phillies had momentum during a furious comeback that attempted to atone for seven innings of nothingness.

“Trying to tie the score,” Thomson said. “I liked where our bullpen was at, as compared to theirs. We play for the tie at home.”

The play backfired because the Dodgers ran a perfect wheel play, an anachronistic maneuver in a sport in which sacrifice bunting is all but dead. The Phillies had one of their slowest runners, Nick Castellanos, on second base. (He should have been out at second when he made an ill-advised attempt to take the extra base after dropping a two-run hit into left field.) It’s possible he would not have scored from second on a single if Stott was swinging away.

The Phillies could not pinch run for Castellanos because they planned to use Harrison Bader, who cannot run because of a groin injury, as a pinch hitter. He would need a pinch runner, which is exactly what happened when Bader smacked a single to left field right after Stott’s failed sacrifice. Weston Wilson pinch ran for Bader as the potential winning run.

“Hands were tied,” Thomson said.

Generally, teams will play for the tie at home. That’s a baseball truism. But Thomson’s bullpen was not in great shape. He had already used four of his best relievers: Jhoan Duran, Matt Strahm, Orion Kerkering and Tanner Banks. He had David Robertson, who was shaky in Game 1, ready for the 10th inning. After that, he would have had to dip into his pool of starting pitchers who are serving as relievers.

Manager Rob Thomson removes starter Jesús Luzardo, who allowed two runs in six innings pitched. The Dodgers broke a scoreless tie in the seventh, scoring four runs. (Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)

There was a fundamental breakdown in the actual play. The wheel is so rare, but the Phillies practice it. They tell their hitters to pull back the bunt and hack away if they see it. Stott saw the Dodgers run the wheel on the first pitch of the at-bat when he took a ball. The Phillies continued to give him the bunt sign, but Mookie Betts did not dart from shortstop to third base until the last moment. He still had a head start on Castellanos, who hesitated as the bunt happened.

“Obviously, I saw what they were doing on the first one,” Stott said. “I tried to deaden it, but not too much so (the catcher) couldn’t get up there and throw it to third. They ran it as perfectly as you can. They just did it exactly how they drew it up.”

Stott is a good contact hitter. He would have relished the chance to swing.

“It is what it is,” Thomson said. “Couldn’t do much about it. I thought Stotty laid down a good bunt. But it’s the way it is.”

“They made it look a lot easier than it was,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of his fielders. “And for me, that was our only chance, really, to win that game in that moment.”

The WHEEL Play!

Winning Baseball Plays! Long way to go though! #dodgers pic.twitter.com/DVvpFXZXJ0

— Dodgers Daily (@dodger_daily) October 7, 2025

It’s why that play will stick in everyone’s mind long after the series is decided. When this era of postseason baseball in Philadelphia began in 2022, the Phillies were the aggressor. They made the other team uncomfortable. And ever since the bitterness from games 6 and 7 of the 2023 National League Championship Series, when they couldn’t finish off the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Phillies have not dictated things. They are passive. They look vulnerable.

The magic is fading inside this ballpark.

“The stadium is alive on both sides, right?” Castellanos said. “When the game is going good, it’s wind at our back, right? But when a game is not going good, it’s wind in our face. So, the environment can be with us, and the environment can be against us.”

The crowd roars as two runs score and the Phillies cut the deficit to 4-3 in the ninth. But they couldn’t bring the tying run home. (Hunter Martin / Getty Images)

The Phillies have scored three or fewer runs in seven of their last eight postseason games. They have lost all seven of those games. They have not homered in this series or in their last four postseason games dating back to last October.

It’s as simple as that. The Phillies are 14-0 in their last 14 postseason games when they hit at least two homers. They are 17-7 since 2022 when they hit even one home run. Since 2021, teams scoring three runs or fewer are 42-133 (.240) in the postseason.

The Phillies started a jumbled outfield in Game 2 that had undrafted Otto Kemp in left field, Brandon Marsh in center field and Castellanos in right. Castellanos played a single into a double in the fateful four-run seventh inning because even 36-year-old Freddie Freeman knows to take the extra base on Castellanos. Kemp, making his first start in left field since July 13, struck out twice in his two at-bats. Marsh walked in the third inning, then was picked off first base.

None of that compares to what the stars atop the lineup have been unable to do in this series. Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper are 2-for-21 with 11 strikeouts and four walks. Harper had a huge chance in the sixth inning with two runners on base and one out. He chased a bunch of Blake Snell sliders out of the strike zone.

“I wouldn’t say we’re pressing,” Harper said. “We’re missing pitches over the plate. They’re making good pitches when they need to. That’s how baseball works sometimes. Obviously, we have to do a better job. We have to dig deep the next couple of days.”

Bryce Harper flies out to end the eighth. He finished 0-for-3 with a walk. (Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)

Turner showed life by walking in the sixth inning and stealing a base. He drove a run-scoring single to center in the eighth inning. He needed one more single in the ninth.

He grounded out to second for the 27th out.

“I feel like we’ve played pretty decent these last two games,” Turner said. “We just haven’t had enough to get the win. I don’t feel like we’re really beating ourselves. I feel like we’re playing some good defense. We’re getting some hits here and there. It just doesn’t seem like enough each step of the way.”

That’s an optimist’s view of this situation. The offense is either irrevocably broken in October or just facing an elite Dodgers pitching staff. The Phillies should have played to win or taken their chances with a tie. It all depends on the perspective, and it will take time to digest this. It could have been the last home game for soon-to-be free agents Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto — and many others who are under contract but not guaranteed to be here in 2026.

The Phillies will play Game 3 on Wednesday night in Los Angeles, and Aaron Nola will start. It’s a surprising decision, but it could be a tactical choice. They probably won’t push Nola deep. “How long he goes, I don’t know,” Thomson said. By starting him, they could force the Dodgers to assemble a lefty-heavy lineup. Then, if Ranger Suárez follows Nola, the Phillies would have platoon advantages or at least compel Roberts to empty his bench.

They might be overthinking this. It might not matter. This all feels too abrupt, and there are legitimate questions about how the Phillies have managed everything — no matter how good the opponent is. The Phillies had the same expectations as the Dodgers. But Los Angeles is the standard.

The Phillies? They look like an October relic. No amount of screaming or smashing will make it feel better.

“Got nothing to lose now,” Turner said. “It’s not over.”