Phils confident in offense despite rough series vs. Brewers

PHILADELPHIA -- Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski offered a glimpse this week at his wish list before the Aug. 1 Trade Deadline:

A right-handed bat, probably in the outfield.

A starting pitcher to provide depth.

Another bat would not have helped the Phillies in Thursday afternoon’s 4-0 loss to the Brewers at Citizens Bank Park. Brewers ace Corbin Burnes allowed two hits, walked one and struck out 10 in eight scoreless innings. Good pitching typically beats good hitting, and Burnes is not some no-named, soft-tossing journeyman. He won the NL Cy Young Award in 2021, edging Phillies ace Zack Wheeler, despite Wheeler throwing 46 1/3 more innings than him.

“Being himself,” Phillies shortstop Trea Turner said about why Burnes was so effective. “He’s good.”

“There’s a reason why he’s an All-Star,” manager Rob Thomson said.

But it was a struggle for the Phillies this week against Milwaukee. In their two losses to the Brewers, they combined for nine hits and three runs. They struck out 23 times. They walked twice.

Sometimes it happens, but the Phillies hope it doesn’t happen too much more in the second half. They are 27-12 (.692) since June 3, but they are fighting for a Wild Card spot.

The Phillies are seventh in baseball in scoring in that time, averaging 5.02 runs per game. But they believe they can be much better.

“I like our club a lot,” Dombrowski said on Wednesday. “We’ve won a lot of games, but we also have a way to continue to improve -- I think from an offensive perspective, in particular. And we’re getting there, you see slowly but surely with some of the guys. I mean, really, what it comes down to, you’ve got four really good starting pitchers and a fifth guy that has stepped in. I like our bullpen a lot. Our offense has gotten better and I think it will continue to get better.

“I think we have a club that has starting pitching that if they’re throwing well in any short series can shut anybody down. We have a shutdown bullpen when it’s throwing well. And we have as many hitters in our lineup that can hit good pitching as any club, really. It’s hard to hit good pitching, period. So I’m not saying that anybody does it, but we probably have as many guys as anybody.”

The Phillies have 66 games to play. They left the ballpark on Thursday tied with the Marlins for the third and final NL Wild Card spot. Both teams are 1 1/2 games behind Arizona and San Francisco, who hold the first two Wild Cards.

It is getting to be that time when head-to-head tiebreakers are mentioned.

The Phillies owned a tiebreaker over Milwaukee last season, which nearly came into play as the teams slipped into a tie for the third NL Wild Card with five games to play. The Phils won their next three to clinch a postseason berth, making the tiebreaker inconsequential. But maybe one matters this time.

The Phillies do not own tiebreakers against the three NL division leaders: Braves (2-4), Dodgers (2-4) and Brewers (1-2).

It is highly unlikely the Phillies catch the Braves in the NL East, anyway, although they play each other seven more times. Atlanta has a commanding 10 1/2-game lead.

But the Dodgers and Brewers might get caught. Their division leads are no more than 2 1/2 games.

Five teams are separated by no more than 2 1/2 games for the three NL Wild Cards: D-backs, Giants, Phillies, Marlins and Reds.

The Phillies won the season series over Arizona (4-3) and Cincinnati (4-3). They are losing the season series against the Giants (0-3) and Marlins (2-4). The Phillies play three games next month against San Francisco at Citizens Bank Park. They play seven more games against the Marlins, including four on the road at the beginning of August and three at home in September.

“You want to win every series,” Thomson said. “But we did the same thing last year [against the Brewers]. I think we lost here and then we went over there and swept. So hopefully history repeats itself.”