The Phillies are authoring the club’s worst collapse since 1964. They have 7 games to rewrite it

CHICAGO — The Phillies have specialized in uninterrupted failure for almost 11 years now. It has assumed various forms — some inconceivable, some haunting, some hilarious — but this was fresh. The 24-year-old outfielder, acquired for a steep price at the trade deadline because he plays an adept center field, lost a ball in the sun for the second time in four days. The robust lineup, the most expensive in club history, could not reach the warning track in three days at Wrigley Field. The team’s three best starters pitched here and they emerged with zero wins.

The Phillies, projected by various models as having a better than 90 percent chance at making the postseason two weeks ago, are a coin flip now. Everything from this season — all of the sweat, the good vibes, the unexpected contributions — it’s all reduced to that. A mere coin flip. The 2-0 loss to Chicago on Thursday dropped them into a tie with Milwaukee, which hosts Miami tonight. The Phillies were working toward something bigger until they lost 10 of 13 games. They were supposed to be different. The darkness had passed.

Then, Jean Segura stood on first base and looked at the venerable scoreboard at this 108-year-old ballpark and saw four balls. He glanced toward the batter’s box and saw the bat boy coming for Nick Maton’s bat and shin guard. The count was 3-1.

Segura trotted toward second base. Then, a Cubs rookie pitcher named Javier Assad was running toward him. Segura, who has played the most games among active MLB players without ever tasting the postseason, was confused. Assad tagged him. The second inning was over.

“It’s my fault,” Segura told Rob Thomson in the dugout.

“You’re right,” said Thomson, the interim manager.

The scoreboard at Wrigley Field said Phillies batter Nick Maton had walked.

He had not. It was ball three.

So Jean Segura got thrown out on the basepath 😬

🎥 @NBCSPhillypic.twitter.com/U7i7xGoBiG

— The Athletic MLB (@TheAthleticMLB) September 29, 2022

Segura shook his head hours later. The Phillies showered and dressed in the small visitors clubhouse. They had scored three runs and mustered two extra-base hits in three days. “We’ve got way too many good hitters here to score three runs against this team,” Segura said. “To be honest, it’s embarrassing.” They are authoring the franchise’s most epic collapse since 1964. There are seven more games to rewrite it.

Someone must stop the bleeding. Few outside the clubhouse walls are convinced the Phillies can do it. They are not just fighting the opposition; they are wrestling with years of failure.

“I don’t think,” Bryce Harper said, “any guy on this team has that mindset of, ‘Oh, here we go again.’ Different group of guys. Different team.”

In a perverse way, that almost makes this worse.

Nico Hoerner steals second base Wednesday as Jean Segura tries to field the throw. (Kamil Krzaczynski / USA Today)

Segura is 32 and he’s been traded four times in his career. Along the way, he did not develop the best reputation. When the team is going right, he is excited. The Phillies transformed their season while Segura was sidelined by a broken finger and he said he was jealous. He was determined to return to be a part of it. He worked hard to speed up the original timetable for his recovery.

He is 9 for his last 47 with one extra-base hit.

“I think we’re putting too much pressure on ourselves,” Segura said after the Phillies went 2-for-22 with runners in scoring position in the series. “Thinking too much. When we get guys in scoring position, we’re trying to do too much — including myself. I feel like everybody here is trying so hard to get the job done and sometimes when you try too hard the result is not going to happen. We have to relax, enjoy the game, have fun. I know that’s hard when you’re losing.”

The Phillies need something loud. They have, for weeks at a time this season, failed to hit for power. Scoring is down across the majors, and it is particularly bad timing for a roster that was constructed around its lineup while sacrificing ground on defense. During the series against the Cubs, the Phillies had a runner on base in 15 consecutive innings. They scored a total of two runs in that span. It’s hard to score with singles.

The onus is on the star players. The younger ones have hit a wall — shortstop Bryson Stott, especially. He did not play Thursday. Alec Bohm is a singles hitter right now. Matt Vierling will see less playing time with Nick Castellanos back in the lineup, but both of them have failed to supply power. J.T. Realmuto, who carried the Phillies for weeks, looks like someone who has caught 10 more games than any other catcher in baseball. (Because he has.) Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins have watched hittable pitches go past them.

Everyone wants this to work. Someone needs to provide a big swing.

“I see it,” Thomson said. “I mean, I hear it on the bench. I see it on the bench. Guys are upbeat. They’re energetic. They’re pulling for each other. They’re not down. So, I mean, I like the fight in this club. I really do. It’s a good group.”

Thomson prides himself on being the same person every day; it is why players and coaches have respect for him. He will not change that approach with the season on the brink. Maybe a more aggressive attitude would help. Maybe it would just make everyone grip the bats a little tighter. There are no more buttons to push, no more levers to pull. The lineup is the lineup. The roster is the roster. It will either go down as one of the greatest disappointments in the history of a franchise filled with disappointment, or it will be one last conquered hurdle en route to terminating this postseason drought.

Getting into the postseason as the sixth-best team in the National League will not fix what ails the Phillies. But they are desperate for some validation.

“We’re still in it,” Harper said. “We have seven games left. We have a road ahead of us. But we have to keep playing. We have to keep going. We can’t have a mindset of losing and thinking about that.”

There is an answer to all of this. The Phillies are looking around, wondering if someone will emerge to provide it. It is an unsettling feeling.

(Photo of Brandon Marsh failing to field a ball in center field: Nuccio DiNuzzo / Getty Images)