The Philadelphia Phillies lost their fifth straight game Friday evening, this time dropping the first of a three game weekend series with the lowly Miami Marlins, despite an eight-inning outing from Aaron Nola. After going 17-11 in May, Gabe Kapler’s squad is just 6-12 in June. The Phillies were 11 games over .500 and three-and-a-half games up in the National League East after defeating the St. Louis Cardinals on May 29. They’ll enter Saturday just three games above .500, and four-and-a-half games behind the Atlanta Braves in the division race.
Swoons like this occur just above every season, but even prior to the latest nosedive, there was growing sentiment that the Phillies offense wasn’t hitting up to it’s full potential in 2019.