Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper: 1-for-10 with 5 strikeouts. In two games: 2-for-21 (.095) with 11 strikeouts. Therein lies the reason why the Phillies are down two games to none with the series headed to Los Angeles. In other words, the team with the best home record (55-26) in the majors loses the first two games to a team that was barely above .500 (41-40) on the road. With a 4-3 loss Monday night, the Phillies have scored just six runs in the two games and their “best” hitters have produced just two hits. Admittedly, one of those hits was an RBI single from Turner in the eighth.

Fault number two goes to manager Rob Thomson. His inability to manage anywhere outside the box or to trust Bryson Stott hurt the Phillies. Stott hit .225 against lefties this season and he was facing Alex Vesia, a lefty, but Thomson put on a bunt, Nick Castellanos got a bad jump off of second, the Dodgers were looking for Thomson to do the expected, and Max Muncy threw out Castellanos at third. Question for Rob Thomson: “Who has a higher batting average against lefties, Bryson Stott or J.T. Realmuto?” Answer: Bryson Stott, .225 to .213. “To follow up, then why don’t you sit Realmuto against lefties?” Answer: – insert sound of crickets chirping here – .

While Dave Roberts ran starters out in relief – including one who had never pitched in relief in his career and saved both games – Thomson went to Orion Kerkering who had a 4.42 ERA over August and September. The only unscripted move that Thomson made was to put closer Jhoan Duran in to pitch the ninth with the Phillies down by three runs looking to preserve the lead.

Schwarber came into the postseason on an 0-for-14 slide and taking it back further, a 5-for-28 (.179) slide. Those numbers are now 0-for-21 and 5-for-35 (.143) and in this postseason and over the last two postseasons is now 2-for-23 (.087). He can’t be hitting second in the order.

As for Harper, did anyone notice how unhard he ran down to first on his fourth inning groundout to second? My overweight neighbor jogs faster than that and he’s not being paid to do it.

Thomson also fell into a bit of luck, too. Had the team decided to carry the extra pitcher rather than the an extra bench player, pinch-hitting for Marsh with Bader would have been much tougher to do. Either Otto Kemp or Weston Wilson would not have been on the roster, so Thomson would have been out of outfielders should the game go extra innings. He could have put Harper in right, but then who plays first? Alec Bohm, you say? Okay, then who plays third? Rafael Marchan?

Getting to the postseason is great and the Phillies were a great regular season team with the second best record in the majors. But we are now staring at the possibility of collapsing after a two-to-none lead last season followed by three-and-out (I won’t hurt my fellow Eagles fans with a remark here). We heard in each of those two seasons that the Phillies are “built to win now.” We heard that they didn’t need to make a lot of moves over the winter because the team would simply be better. Then, we watched them scramble to pull a rabbit out of a hat at the trade deadline, but to Dave Dombrowski and Sam Fuld‘s credit, they did it. Well folks, “now” may be over.