One final weak night from the lineup and bullpen in a nightmarish finish for Phillies – NBC Sports Philadelphia

NEW YORK – The two main reasons the Phillies fell behind in the NLDS were the two main reasons they lost the NLDS and are going home sooner than any of them expected.

The offense failed to shine and the backup players the Phillies had relied on most throughout the regular season were completely ineffective.

Just like in Game 1, the Phillies took a one-run lead but were unable to extend it. They kept the Mets at bay by pushing just one over when they had runners on second and third with one out in the top of the fourth and stranding two baserunners with one out in the sixth.

All night, all series long, the Phillies just needed room to breathe. They spent less than half an inning of the NLDS with a multiple-run lead.

Despite their slim lead in the middle innings on Wednesday night, the Phillies never seemed to have control of Game 4. The Mets had plenty of chances against Ranger Suarez in the first three innings, but they went 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position until then in the bottom of the sixth, when they loaded the bases for the third time and scored on a grand slam by Francisco Lindor won against Carlos Estevez.

Three of the runs in the 4-1 loss were attributed to Jeff Hoffman, who posted a 1.65 ERA in the final weekend of the regular season before allowing 10 runs in his final 2⅓ innings. He suffered defeats in games 1 and 4.

Estevez did what the Phillies signed him to do in the regular season, posting a 2.57 ERA, but in the end he too ran out of gas and struggled to miss at-bats. Lindor's game-winning slam came on the fourth pitch Estevez threw.

All told, the Phillies bullpen allowed 17 runs in 12⅔ innings in the series.

As bad as the performance was, the offense was even worse. The Phillies scored two runs before the sixth inning in the NLDS – two runs in 20 innings. One was Kyle Schwarber's leadoff home run in Game 1. The other scored on an error by Mets third baseman Mark Vientos in the fourth inning of Game 4.

The Phillies put the game-winning run in the ninth inning when no one retired on consecutive walks against Edwin Diaz, but Kody Clemens struck out, Brandon Marsh flied out and Schwarber went down with a swing to end the game and the season.

There is no particular hitter to highlight as the Phils came up short throughout the lineup. JT Realmuto went hitless in the NLDS. Alec Bohm was benched in Game 2 and went 1-for-13 with no RBI. Trea Turner hit a single three times and walked twice, but had no extra-base hits. The Phillies' 6-9 batters were a combined 4-for-52.

Now they are going home for the winter. This year it should be different. The Phillies crashed the playoff party and stormed through it in 2022, then were even better in 2023, leading teams through their first eight playoff games until a drastic correction occurred in the NLCS, mostly in the form of their own excessive Aggressiveness.

The 95-win team that season was the best of the three, the deepest and most talented roster. It's reminiscent of 2011, when the Phillies assembled the deepest roster of talent in that five-year run, but were outplayed and upset by the Cardinals in the NLDS.

The Phillies looked like the best team in baseball throughout the first half, with a score of 62-34 and a franchise-record eight players in the All-Star Game. But what they did in the second half, playing at a .500 level, proved more indicative of the team they were.

Zack Wheeler had another Cy Young-caliber season. He, Aaron Nola and Cristopher Sanchez made every start. Harper, Schwarber and Nick Castellanos each played 145 games. Players' primes don't last forever and this is another wasted year.

Many of their players will remain with the Phillies in 2025, but this particular lineup appears to have had its day.