Remember that great, completely unexpected Phillies season?
You know, back on Aug. 5, with the Phightin's were 15 games over .500.
Turns out it surprised the experts for a reason. It was a mirage.
Well you can forget it.
Fast-forward a month and a half.
August and September have not been kind to Gabe Kapler and the Phillies.
Yesterday the lost for the eighth straight time, falling to the Rockies, 5-3.
That means they got swept in Colorado.
After being swept in Atlanta.
David Dahl homered again. That means he went yard in every game of this series vs. the Phils.
Bottom line? The Phils now need a weekend sweep of the Braves just to finish at .500. Raise your hand if you think that's likely to happen? Thought so. That makes seven straight seasons without a winning record for the Phils.
Hell, they're even shutting down McFadden's at Citizens Bank Park. It's apparently going to be replaced with a Shake Shack.
The Phils should take a clue from that and shake up this lineup.
The real crime of this season.
Nearly every question that surrounded this team when it gathered in Clearwater back in February remains unanswered at the end of September.
Will we ever see the full potential of Maikel Franco?
Will Odubel Herrera ever stop making stupid mistakes?
Where should Rhys Hoskins play?
Is Scott Kingery able to hit at the big-league level?
What do you do with Cesar Hernandez?
Aaron Altherr?
Nick Williams?
Do they have any quality arms aside from Aaron Nola? And was his trail-off at the tail end of the season just a case of being tired of carrying the load?
Lots of questions.
Gabe Kapler and Matt Klentak had months to answer them.
The result? Beats me.
Columnist Jack McCaffery says Kapler failed in one key area this season.
I'm guessing they'll have the same questions when they show up in Clearwater in a couple of months.
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