PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Phillies manager Joe Girardi has made it clear that he thinks his 23-24 ball club is better than their record indicates. But that record doesn't scream "division champion to be." Thus, when asked to describe the Phillies' play on Sunday, Girardi didn't sugarcoat an inconsistent couple months of baseball.
"It's been really up and down, is what it's been," Girardi said.
With their 6-2 game against the Red Sox, the Phils avoided a fifth consecutive loss.
The reasons for the inconsistency are simple, Girardi said. "It's been everything, in a sense. At times we haven't hit. At times we haven't played defense. At times we haven't pitched."
If not for Zack Wheeler, the Red Sox might have had their sweep. Wheeler played stopper on Sunday by striking out 12 over 7.1 innings of three-hit, one-run baseball. He was able to hold up the 4-0 lead the Phils' bats produced in the first inning.
However, just as those runs came in a rare burst, Wheeler says the mistakes come in similar fashion.
"Everybody's playing well," Wheeler said, "we just had those moments where we bunch them up -- a bunch of errors in one game, or that type of stuff -- and it's kind of hard to get out of that the next game. But we got to turn that page."
And as the Phils turn the page to a huge series against the Miami Marlins starting Monday night, Girardi acknowledges that his club is lucky that they're right behind the first-place New York Mets in the National League East rather than out of sight and out of mind.
"We're fortunate we don't have a team that's 10-12 games over .500 in front of us. So, the opportunity is there for us moving forward."
There are three stats the Phils have a chance to improve upon over their 10-game road trip the next week and a half.
They must do better against the Marlins, who they're 13-19 against since the start of the 2019 season.
They have to do better against the NL East, as they sport only an 11-13 record against division opponents in 2021.
And they need to do better on the road, where they're 8-14.