PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — With the Phillies at an unfathomable 10 ½ games behind the first-place Mets, should manager Joe Girardi be worried about his job security?
“You ask me that every day,” he responded after the Mets swept the Phillies out of Citi Field with a 5-4, 10-inning walk-off win. “I don’t worry about my job. I’ve never worried about my job. … It’s the business of being a manager.”
This was after Phillies closer Corey Knebel blew a save, as the Phils tried to avoid this sweep.
Girardi is in the final year of a three-year contract, and his 2023 club option has not been picked up by Phillies President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski. Former General Manager Matt Klentak hired Girardi, not Dombrowski.
Dombrowski has offered his support behind Girardi, but heading into Monday’s 4:05 game against Gabe Kapler’s San Francisco Giants, the Phillies are six games under .500 for the first time since 2017.
Think about that. The last time their record was six games below .500, Bryce Harper wasn’t a Phillie. In fact, the only present-day Phillies who were around during that time were Aaron Nola, Zach Eflin, Rhys Hoskins and Odúbel Herrera.
That’s it.
Pete Mackanin was the manager — that’s two managers ago.
With a franchise-record payroll, this is not what the 2022 Phillies were supposed to be.
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Harper insisted the Phils need to stay even-keeled amid these struggles, but they have to start getting a roll.
“It’s why you play 162 games,” Harper said. “You gotta keep going. You can’t think about the 10 ½ games and think to yourself, ‘we’re out of this’ or ‘we’re in this,’ or anything like that. You got to show up every day ready to play as a team and ready to go as a team no matter any outcome.”
Girardi said the way to get out of this funk is to keep fighting, as the Phils did with Nick Castellanos’ three-run homer in the eighth, putting them up one against the Mets before blowing things in the ninth and 10th. He said limiting mistakes is key, though.
Before the Phils gave up yet another late lead, Girardi talked to ESPN’s David Cone in a pregame interview. Girardi was Cone’s catcher the day he threw a perfect game at Yankee Stadium in 1999.
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Amid the Phillies’ inconsistency, Girardi told Cone that they have to remember it is a 162-game season, so the key is to improve during that long season. Girardi insisted his players are putting in the work and things will turn around.
“It’s going to turn,” he said. “These guys are too good and it’s going to turn.”
But, will things turn around with Girardi still in the dugout, or will Dombrowski have to shake things up to get things moving in that direction?