The Phillies walked the tightrope all Wednesday night. It is not a sustainable way to win a baseball game — in October, June or March. They asked for one more Houdini Act in the sixth inning of Game 4.
Francisco Lindor denied it and ended the Phillies’ season.
The Phillies are going home, staring down an offseason that will feel even longer than the last two — and not just because it actually will indeed be longer, the team continuing a 2009-2011-style devolution that’s seen them get eliminated one round earlier with each progressive October. Their bats once again could not muster anything, chasing and whiffing and wasting their way to one run on three hits and this core’s third loss in three elimination games.