Phillies end 3rd straight October without World Series championship

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Carlos Estévez crouched on the mound and turned his head toward center field as the Phillies reliever tracked the flight of Francisco Lindor’s long drive into the outfield.

Estévez dropped his head as Lindor’s shot cleared the fence for a game-winning grand slam that sent the New York Mets into the NL Championship Series — and Philadelphia into another empty offseason.

A team that spent a bulk of the season with the best record in baseball continued to whiff their way down the postseason ladder — from a 2022 World Series loss, to a 2023 NL Championship Series Game 7 defeat, to maybe the worst one of them all, a four-game loss to the Mets in the NLDS.

What went wrong? Pick your cause of postseason death from a menu of misfortune.

__ The high-priced lineup full of sluggers — J.T. Realmuto went 0 for 11; Kyle Schwarber was 2 for 16 — chased pitch after pitch out of the strike zone and failed the Phillies in the clutch.

__ The reliable bullpen with two trustworthy All-Stars had a dumbfounding collapse against the Mets.

__ Tomorrow’s supposed building blocks — such as Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm and Brandon Marsh — flashed such little production they could become this winter’s trade bait.

“Everybody in baseball, all the fans, everybody are saying, this is our year, this is our year, this is our year,” slugger Nick Castellanos said.

Until it wasn't.

The key number might be this, 32-33. Counting the postseason, the Phillies weren’t even a .500 team over the final 65 games, a sign they likely peaked too early and even with an NL East crown, weren’t built to make a serious deep postseason run with this roster.

While the Phillies (95-67) essentially brought back last season's team to give it one more run with this nucleus, changes are clearly ahead.

But blow up the roster? Not happening.

“I don’t see us going backward, no,” manager Rob Thomson said.

With a bloated payroll and multiple years and millions left owed to Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Schwarber, Castellanos and most of the rotation, where do the Phillies go from here?

Bohm, Stott and Marsh comprised a trio of 20-something Phillies that were integral to a championship. Bohm showed the most promise this season with his first career All-Star berth, only to slump so bad down the stretch — and into the playoffs — that he was benched for Game 2.

Stott and Marsh took a seat for Game 3.

The trio went 4 for 37 over the five games and, of them, Stott’s failure to develop into an All-Star caliber starter was one of the glaring disappointments this season.

A local artist painted a mural ahead of the postseason of the trio on the side of a Philadelphia bar. By Thursday morning, Phillies fans seemed poised to deface the art.

“Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” one wrote on social media.

Bohm has two years of arbitration eligibility ahead before free agency and he said after Game 4 he expected to return next season.

There was plenty of blame beyond the day care. Castellanos (7 for 17) and Harper had a solid series but Trea Turner was 3 for 15 and the Phillies hit just .186 in the NLDS, including 6 for 31 with runners in scoring position.

The slumping sluggers continued a trend from last season when Schwarber, Turner, Harper and Castellanos went 5 for 53 (.094) with 11 walks, 22 strikeouts and two RBIs in Philadelphia’s four NLCS losses.

How can any team expect to win a World Series when the bats consistently go silent in October?

In baseball lingo, the Phillies need a professional hitter in the lineup. They need a hitter who has control of the strike zone, can make a productive out instead of always taking a big strike three, and not be so boom-or-bust at the plate.

The Phillies are 1-5 in their last six postseason games.

Thomson has another year left on his contract and it seems an extension is not in play, not exactly a major vote of confidence for a manager whose playoff teams are yielding diminishing returns.

The players seem to love the manager nicknamed Topper but it might just be World Series-or-else as he enters his fourth season. If the Phillies get off to a slow start, no doubt that seat will grow pretty hot.

Estévez and fellow pitchers Jeff Hoffman and Spencer Turnbull are the only players eligible for free agency.

Hoffman wants to return and even an awful postseason — he allowed six runs over 1 1/3 innings over three games and lost Games 1 and 4 — shouldn’t hinder talks with the Phillies on a new deal.

The Phillies have made three straight postseason runs without a true No. 1 closer each season. The bullpen-by-committee plan has failed them in the playoffs (hello and goodbye, Craig Kimbrel)

Matt Strahm, the All-Star lefty, was lit up in the Game 1 loss and the bullpen never recovered. Phillies relievers had an 11.37 ERA, allowing 11 of 15 inherited to score.

While majority owner John Middleton hasn't shied away from signing splashy contracts, the Phillies won't overpay for Hoffman or Estévez.

The Phillies are hopeful prized pitching prospect Andrew Painter can contribute to the rotation next season. The 21-year-old right-hander hasn’t pitched since he had needed Tommy John surgery off an elbow injury suffered in 2023 spring training. Painter is set to return to the mound this weekend in the Arizona Fall League. The Phillies intend to cap him at 20 innings and haven’t decided how they’ll use him in 2025.

The 6-foot-7 Painter was the 13th overall pick in the 2021 amateur draft and signed for a $3.9 million bonus.

Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sánchez and Taijuan Walker are all under contract for next season and beyond while Ranger Suarez is eligible for salary arbitration though next season.

The Phillies could move on from Walker, his free-agent signing easily the worst move by president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski since he took over ahead of the 2021 season. (His trade deadline deals for Estévez and outfielder Austin Hays weren’t so hot, either).

Walker was yanked from the rotation, blew a one-start reprieve, and was left off the postseason roster.

One final gloomy postscript to the season, Calum Scott is late to the party. The British singer was finally set to play Philadelphia on Thursday night, only now with no cause for celebration. “Dancing On My Own” was retired as the official postseason party anthem and, well, the season is over anyway.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Ranger Suárez walks off the field at the end of the second inning of Game 4 of the National League baseball playoff series against the New York Mets, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

Philadelphia Phillies' Bryce Harper is congratulated by Bryson Stott (5) after scoring on an error by New York Mets third baseman Mark Vientos during the fourth inning of Game 4 of the National League baseball playoff series, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Ranger Suárez, center, reacts as he waits to be relieved during the fifth inning of Game 4 of the National League baseball playoff series against the New York Mets, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thomson walks off the field after a pitching change during the sixth inning of Game 4 of the National League baseball playoff series against the New York Mets, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jeff Hoffman walks off the field after walking the bases loaded against the New York Mets during the sixth inning of Game 4 of the National League baseball playoff series, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper (3) takes a break during a pitching change by the New York Mets during the sixth inning of Game 4 of the National League baseball playoff series, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

WASHINGTON (AP) — With less than four weeks until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris is facing new urgency to define how her potential presidency would be different from that of President Joe Biden.

Her struggle to present herself both as a candidate of change while demonstrating a loyalty to the politician she serves under was made clear Tuesday, when she was asked on ABC’s “The View” how she would lead differently than Biden.

Harris said, “We’re obviously two different people” and “I will bring those sensibilities to how I lead.” But when pressed to identify a decision made by Biden that she would have taken another way, she demurred. “There is not a thing that comes to mind,” she said.

She followed up later in the show by saying she would put a Republican in her Cabinet.

Two and a half months into her unexpected candidacy, Harris has so far largely relied on her age and biography to signal a break from the 81-year-old Biden and her 78-year-old Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump. Now, in a tight race against Trump, she is being forced to reassess how she talks about her boss and how she might strike out on her own should she win the White House.

The first Black and South Asian woman to be a major party presidential nominee, Harris was 9 years old when Biden was elected to the Senate and was in law school when Trump, then a real estate heir and socialite, published “The Art of the Deal.” Harris, her campaign believes, embodies change. Yet, she still may need to find a better way to talk about it.

According to aides, Harris is deeply loyal to Biden and resistant to publicly doing anything that could be construed as criticizing his presidency, though his favorability ratings remain underwater. In private, some question what she should break with Biden on — noting the popularity of some of the biggest pieces of his legislative agenda, from infrastructure to lowering the costs of some prescription drugs, and the recklessness of signaling any daylight with the president on foreign policy at a time of global crises.

Harris was a central partner to Biden throughout, and they worry a break now could be viewed as preelection opportunism.

Views of Biden are still more negative than positive, even after he withdrew as the Democratic nominee in July. About 4 in 10 Americans had a somewhat or very favorable view of Biden in an AP-NORC poll conducted in September, and 55% had an unfavorable view, which is consistent with where his favorability ratings have stood for the past two years. Feelings toward Harris, meanwhile, were warmer -- half of Americans had a favorable opinion of her, while 44% had an unfavorable opinion.

In addition to her pledge to put a Republican in her Cabinet, Harris has introduced some policies distinct from Biden — including calling for a smaller hike to the capital gains tax than advocated for by the president. But they have been modest, and Biden’s White House, in turn, has quickly signed on to her positions.

Trump seized on her comments that she couldn’t think of any decision by Biden that she would change, playing a clip of “The View” appearance at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday to roars from the crowd.

“Her answer that she would do nothing different is disqualifying," he said in Reading.

Some Harris allies have pressed her to more forcefully signal a break from Biden.

“She should do what’s best,” former Harris communications director Jamal Simmons said. “Winning will make Joe Biden feel a lot better than anything else.”

Biden is “an unpopular president in a global anti-incumbent mood,” added Democratic strategist Alyssa Cass, adding that the small universe of undecided voters is particularly not enthralled by Biden.

Harris, she said, needs to “communicate clearly to voters something she would have done differently that is acknowledging some of the dissatisfaction that they have — rightly or wrongly — as a way to move them to be fully comfortable with her.”

The first vice president to mount a bid to replace a leader of their party in almost a quarter century, Harris is trying to strike a delicate balance. Harris’ team has tried to keep Biden at a distance on the campaign trail – the pair have held only a single campaign event together — yet she has been pulled into appearing by his side to monitor hurricanes and address emergencies in the Middle East.

Harris' challenge is not unique, though the compressed nature of her campaign after Biden's exit is undoubtedly a complicating factor not faced in the modern era.

In 2000, the then-Democratic nominee, Vice President Al Gore, maintained an arms' length relationship with a scandal-tarred President Bill Clinton after he faced a high-profile impeachment inquiry over his affair with a White House intern and attempts to cover it up. And in 1988, President Ronald Reagan, then 78, did not campaign aggressively for his vice president and eventual successor, George H.W. Bush.

“Vice presidents have always struggled with how to separate themselves from incumbent presidents,” said Republican strategist Alex Conant. “It’s why so few of them win.”

“Her talking point that she’s ‘not Joe Biden’ is a good quip, but not a good message,” Conant added, saying, “She should be able to point to three things at the ready that she’d do differently.” Instead, he said, Harris "delivered Trump’s message better than Trump does himself.”

Other Democrats see little reason for Harris to make explicit policy breaks from Biden. Her presence at the top of the ticket resolves what had been the biggest Democratic vulnerability in November — Biden’s age.

“There’s no question that the campaign understands the imperative for her to be an agent of change,” said Eric Schultz, a Democratic operative and a former Obama spokesperson. “That is why 'a new way forward' is a smart frame, and it’s also why she has made clear that her election would represent generational change. That is, of course, a contrast with her 78-year-old opponent, but it’s also a signal that her entire orientation will be future and forward looking.”

Associated Press writers Chris Megerian and Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.

—

This story has been corrected to show President Joe Biden is 81.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks before planting a memorial tree on the grounds of the Vice President's residence in Washington on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, to honor the victims and mark one year since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)