<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=19TmHJ_0vzYwt4800" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=19TmHJ_0vzYwt4800" width="1280" height="853" ><figcaption>Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola is relieved by manager Rob Thomson during the sixth inning of Game 3 of the National League baseball playoff series against the New York Mets, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) AP</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.pennlive.com/phillies/">The Phillies</a> have lost four of their last five playoff games. The first two losses eliminated the Phillies in a seven-game NLCS last season. The last two losses brought them to the brink of elimination in the NL Division Series. Toothless on Tuesday night, <a href="https://www.pennlive.com/phillies/2024/10/mets-beat-phillies-behind-alonso-and-manaea-to-take-2-1-lead-in-nlds.html">the Phillies lost Game 3 to the Mets, 7-2.</a>In the Phillies' last four playoff losses, through the first seven innings of Game 3 on Tuesday, the Big Four were 6 for 56.By the time the Big Four got going, the game was over. The Phils trailed, 6-0, with six outs to go.That’s the story.Not the bullpen meltdowns. Not then-rookie Orion Kerkering and AARP closer Craig Kimbrel last year, and not Matt Strahm, Jeff Hoffman &amp; Co. this year.Not the starters. Zack Wheeler was amazing in the Game 1 NLDS loss, though Aaron Nola wasn’t great Tuesday, and he wasn’t great in Game 6 of the NLCS last year, and Ranger Suárez wasn’t great in Game 7, either.But the offense scored a total of seven runs in those losses.The offense also includes J.T. Realmuto, whose contract inflates the payroll to more than $900 million.Nine hundred million.Seven measly runs.It turns out that Sunday’s Game 2 seven-run spike was the exception to the current rule: Since the middle of the 2023 NLCS, the well-heeled Phillies aren’t producing to their pay grade. Not in the biggest moments.Nola’s well-paid, too. Last winter he signed a seven-year, $172 million contract to stay with the Phillies.They’d hoped he would post his 30 starts again. Which he did (33). They’d hoped he would be dominant again in the early part of the postseason. He didn’t surrender a run in the first start of either of his previous playoff runs. That, he didn’t do.He wasn’t as bad as his numbers Tuesday. Entering the sixth inning he had struck out eight, walked none, and the only runs were solo homers from Pete Alonso in the second and Jesse Winker in the fourth. The homer was Alonso’s sixth off Nola, but then, Alonso has owned him: He was 16 for 50 (.320). Hey, Polar Bears gotta eat, too.Nola tired in the sixth: single, walk, walk, bench. Kerkering almost rescued Nola, and might have if second baseman Edmundo Sosa hadn’t botched a possible double-play ball, but Sosa booted a one-hopper and got just one out at the plate. A fly ball made it two outs instead of three, and a two-run single by Starling Marte ruined Nola’s line: five innings, four runs, all earned, two homers, two walks.It happens. He’s a 31-year-old who’s averaged about 200 innings in the regular season over the last three years then pitched deep into two wild-card playoff runs.You know what can’t happen?Seven runs in four playoff games from a lineup with $800 million in the 1-2-3-4 slots.The best of them have cost them, especially Tuesday.<a href="https://www.pennlive.com/topic/bryce-harper/">Bryce Harpe</a>r is the best of them.With runners on first and second in the third, with two out, Harper weakly grounded out to starter Sean Manaea.With runners on first and second in the sixth, with no outs, Harper fanned at three straight off-speed pitches.It was not The Showman who’d been so locked in in Games 1 and 2.It was ... feeble.It was unforeseeable. Entering the game Harper was 4 for 11 against Manaea. He was 3 for 8 with a home run this season.Harper finally managed an RBI single in the eighth off Phil Maton, saving a shutout and, to a degree, saving face after 2 1/2 hours of feebleness. Castellanos followed Harper’s RBI single in the eighth with another. Too little, too late.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2qAtqv_0vzYwt4800" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2qAtqv_0vzYwt4800" width="1280" height="853" ><figcaption>New York Mets pitcher Ryne Stanek (55) reacts after striking out the Philadelphia Phillies to end the ninth inning and Game 3 of the National League baseball playoff series, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) AP</figcaption></figure>Manaea was good, but face it: He’s Sean Manaea. You can talk all you want about his new arm angle and his sneaky sweeper, but the Phillies tagged him for three runs on Sept. 21, and the Brewers rocked him for six less than a week later, then scored two on him in Game 2 of the wild-card series last week, which the Mets lost.Manaea lasted seven innings, allowed three hits, and one run, which scored after he was lifted in the eighth.Harper wasn’t alone in his untimely failures Tuesday. Schwarber is 0 for 9 since his second hit in Game 1. Turner had first and second with one out in the eighth and grounded out. Castellanos stranded the same two runners in the sixth as Harper did. It was worse, but not of Casty’s doing: Schwarber, running on contact, got doubled off second base.©2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Visit at inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.</div></body>

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Phillies $800M Big Four vanish again in Game 3 loss | Opinion

The Phillies have lost four of their last five playoff games. The first two losses eliminated the Phillies in a seven-game NLCS last season. The last two losses brought them to the brink of elimination in the NL Division Series. Toothless on Tuesday night, the Phillies lost Game 3 to the Mets, 7-2.

Phillies $800M Big Four vanish again in Game 3 loss | Opinion

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