'No excuse': Phils new-look 'pen unravels

Bryce Harper is not alone in his sentiment.

The Phillies revamped their bullpen on Friday only to watch it blow a two-run lead in the eighth inning and a tie game in the ninth inning in Saturday’s 6-5 loss to the Braves at Truist Park in Atlanta. The Phillies have lost five consecutive games -- they held a lead in each one -- to fall to 9-14, which is the second-worst record in the National League. Most teams will hit a rough stretch during a normal season, but this season is not normal. It is 60 games, meaning the Phillies have played more than a third of it.

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“We’ve just got to get better,” Harper said. “We’ve just got to absolutely just be better. It’s plain and simple.

“We have minimal games to play this year. We have to be able to get out there and play our game and we have to win. I mean, we have to go on a streak and win nine out of 10. It needs to happen. It’s tough. It’s very tough in baseball to do that. But to get where we need to be, it needs to happen.”

Harper crushed a two-run home run to right-center field in the first inning to hand the Phillies a 2-0 lead. Zack Wheeler struck out eight batters and allowed two runs in seven strong innings, flashing a devastating curveball that baffled the Braves.

“When you’re ahead in games like this, when Wheeler comes in and he’s doing what he’s doing, we’ve got to win this game,” Harper said. “It’s a sure-shot win for us. We’ve got to win this game.”

But Phillies right-hander Héctor Neris started the eighth inning. He has been the Phillies’ closer, but he has been struggling. Maybe he is struggling too much to pitch in high-leverage situations, but Phillies manager Joe Girardi stuck with him.

“We spent a lot of time in the matchups, is what we do,” Girardi said. “I've told Héctor and [Brandon] Workman that they're interchangeable, right? Depending on matchups, that's who we'll go to at that time in the eighth or the ninth. And it didn't work.”

Neris allowed a leadoff single to Dansby Swanson and walked Freddie Freeman to put runners on first and second with two outs. Marcell Ozuna then singled to left field to score Swanson to cut the Phillies’ lead to one. Adam Duvall flied out to left field for the first out, keeping the runners at the corners with one out.

Girardi called for Workman, whom the Phillies got Friday in a multi-player deal with the Red Sox. Workman has been Boston’s closer. Girardi hoped Workman could pick up a five-out save. But Matt Adams slapped a first-pitch curveball into the left-field corner for a double to score Freeman and Ozuna to hand the Braves a 5-4 lead.

Harper’s sacrifice fly to left field tied the game in the ninth, but Workman loaded the bases in the bottom half only to have Duvall single to center field to score the game-winning run.

“That’s not the first impression I’m trying to make,” Workman said. “That’s not what I do on the mound. I need to execute pitches better than I did tonight. There’s no excuse for that. I just need to do a better job and get my job done.”

The bullpen’s ERA jumped to 8.33 after the loss.

“I know our fans are struggling with it, but it’s baseball,” Wheeler said. “It’s a hard game. These guys are going out there and giving it the best they can. I have trust in our bullpen. I know what they’re capable of.”

Can the Phillies turn things around? Sure. Eight teams will make the postseason in each league. That includes the top two teams in each division, plus two teams with the best remaining records. A .500 team -- or even a team with a losing record -- could make the postseason.

But the Phillies are not even there.

“There are some teams that are not playing very well right now,” Harper said, “So if we do go .500 and we get in and we have the three horses that we have at the top and the guys in our bullpen, and I think we’re going to even go out and get more guys and get better. You’re going to have to do it. If we’re going to go for it and get it done, then I believe that’s what’s going to happen.”