From ‘Bedlam’ to breakdown: Phillies collapse again as city’s Game 7 misery and a tough offseason loom

A long time ago, in an era that was both different and the same, an old ballplayer said something to me that I’ve never quite forgotten.

“Hardest thing to do in sports,” he said, “hitting a big league pitcher.”

The sentiment wasn’t all that novel. Borderline cliché. For whatever reason, it stuck with me. Here was a guy who’d hit plenty of big league pitchers in his life and would go on to hit plenty more. And, yeah. He was right.

The immediate aftermath is no time for rash decisions or definitive judgments. Find me a statement that did not stand the test of time, and I’ll find you someone who wishes he’d taken a lot more time before stating it. October is too long a month, the Phillies too special a team, to wad up all they accomplished because of all that they didn’t.

An epic choke? A historic collapse? A monumental disappointment whose aftereffects will reverberate through the years?

It’s possible that this National League Championship Series qualifies as all of those things. But I’m not ready to go there just yet.

Baseball is hard. That’s the primary reason the Phillies finished their Tuesday night with a 4-2 loss to the Diamondbacks in Game 7 rather than a second straight berth in the World Series.

When Paul Sewald’s 1-2 sweeper left Jake Cave’s bat and traced a long but nonthreatening arc toward foul territory in right field, it put the finishing touches on one of the most disappointing ends to a season this city has ever seen. Nobody will question that. Not the players, not the manager, certainly not me. As the Diamondbacks streamed out of the visitors’ dugout and made a beeline for the pitcher’s mound, you couldn’t help but flash back to a week ago when they walked out of Citizens Bank Park down, 2-0, the entire city paying their last respects.

That was only a week ago, right? It felt like a year by the end of Tuesday night. Back-to-back losses in Games 6 and 7 were not how this was supposed to end.

» READ MORE: Phillies’ stars disappeared as the team blew a 3-2 NLCS lead and lost Games 6 and 7, just like the Sixers | Marcus Hayes

Yet it ended as it should have. The Phillies were the better team all season. They were the better team two games into this series. But the playoffs are judged in seven-game samples. This one belonged to the Diamondbacks.

The Phillies deserved to lose. They deserved it in Games 3 and 4 in Arizona. They deserved it in Game 6 at Citizens Bank Park. And they absolutely deserved it in Game 7. The Diamondbacks played their game; the Phillies played theirs. Arizona’s was superior. Slightly. But slight enough.

The Phillies went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position in Game 7. The Diamondbacks went 2-for-11. Slight, but enough.

The Phillies got their runs in electrifying fashion: a solo home run from Alec Bohm in the second inning, a go-ahead RBI double from Bryson Stott after Bohm’s one-out walk in the fourth. They are a team that does not apologize for its power. Multiple bases are always better than increments of one. But games are often won in the at-bats between the big hits. Especially games like this.

The Diamondbacks scored a run in the first inning on two singles and a fielder’s choice. They scored a run in the fifth with a single, a sacrifice bunt, and single that drove the runner home. Corbin Carroll, who drove in the tying run, stole second and scored another run on a single.

Sac flies count the same as solo home runs. The Diamondbacks took advantage of their opportunity in the seventh. The Phillies failed their chance in the fourth.

That was the difference, mathematically speaking.

They tried. Give them that. Right up to the end, they acquitted themselves of the harshest charge you can levy at a team. Zack Wheeler was out there pitching on two days rest. His fielders were channeling every ounce of their energy into getting him six outs. Nick Castellanos and Trea Turner are two of the biggest reasons the Phillies will be home for Halloween. But there they both were in the top of the eighth, Castellanos chasing down a line drive in the right-field corner, Turner making a backward-bending bucket catch while folding awkwardly into the turf.

Both will be remembered chiefly for their struggles at the plate in Games 6 and 7. Their combined 0-for-8 was as big of a factor as any on Tuesday.

There’s something poetic about the fact that Castellanos homered in his first at bat of the series and went hitless in the rest. The story of a season, and an October, and a bedeviling game.

Hardest thing to do in sports.

Indeed.