NEW YORK — Jeff Hoffman stood there, surrounded by anguish, and it was tough to speak. A few of his Phillies teammates shared beers at a small card desk. Brandon Marsh, nonetheless at his locker, couldn’t take away his No. 16 grey jersey. The loudest sound got here from operating water from the adjoining showers contained in the guests clubhouse at Citi Discipline.
The enormity of all of it — this failed promise — crammed the room.
Right here was Hoffman, a 31-year-old former prospect who resurrected his profession in Philadelphia. He warmed up three totally different occasions Wednesday evening throughout Sport 4 of the Nationwide League Division Sequence. He entered within the fifth inning with two runners on base. He extinguished the risk with seven pitches. He informed supervisor Rob Thomson he may preserve going. The Phillies, confronted with a leaking bullpen the New York Mets clobbered all collection, determined this was the very best path ahead. It was aggressive.
They wanted 12 extra outs. Hoffman needed to give extra.
“I wished the ball in my hand,” Hoffman mentioned. “In my head, I might’ve had a clear one proper there, after which gone again out for an additional one. Regardless of the workforce wanted. Nevertheless it simply didn’t occur that method.”
The Phillies supplied Hoffman with a brand new life. Hoffman gave them a lot. He allowed 16 earned runs in six months. Then, in a five-day span in opposition to the Mets, he surrendered six runs. His runners rounded the bases when Francisco Lindor bashed a back-breaking grand slam off a 99 mph fastball from Carlos Estévez.
Mets 4, Phillies 1. The tip.
Hoffman will probably be a free agent in November and he’ll land a profitable, multi-year contract with somebody. It may be the Phillies.
“Yeah,” Hoffman mentioned. He paused. “That’s all I need.”
He couldn’t maintain again the tears.
“It’s laborious,” Hoffman mentioned, “to consider proper now.”
This hit him — all of them — laborious. It was presupposed to be this workforce’s time. They’ll all be older in 2025. This complete endeavor will probably be more durable to belief as a result of the Phillies have drifted additional and farther from the final word aim. However that they had created one thing superb, and for this reason he began to cry.
“Simply the individuals,” Hoffman mentioned. “The individuals.”
The individuals are going to be totally different in 2025 as a result of the Phillies haven’t any different selection. They saved a lot of the identical roster from a season in the past, after they fell one win shy of back-to-back Nationwide League pennants. They gained 95 video games in 2024 and captured an elusive division title. They owned one of many strongest rosters in October, however that group was uncovered by an upstart New York workforce.
Perhaps it wasn’t so deep. The Phillies’ No. 6 by way of 9 hitters went 5-for-54 (.093) within the four-game collection — the lowest-ever postseason batting common for a lineup’s again half. The bullpen, a power all season, had a 11.37 ERA.
The Phillies scored two runs earlier than the sixth inning over your entire collection. The Mets had a solution for each perceived Phillies power.
“Give them their credit score,” Nick Castellanos mentioned. “They beat us. Are there quite a lot of issues that we may have carried out higher? Sure. Are there issues that we may have carried out totally different? Sure. Do I believe that they’re a greater workforce than us? No. However this collection, they have been.”
Nick Castellanos doubles within the fourth inning, when the Phillies scored their lone run. (Wendell Cruz / Imagn Photos)
Because of this the winter will really feel longer. The Phillies had a wholesome Zack Wheeler all season and, at 34, he was among the best pitchers in baseball. They in all probability misplaced this NLDS after they didn’t construct a bigger lead in Sport 1 as Wheeler dominated the Mets. They’d 199 1/3 innings from 31-year-old Aaron Nola and a breakout season from Cristopher Sánchez, 27. They boasted two All-Star relievers in Hoffman and Matt Strahm, each of their early 30s.
They’d Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper, each 31, as formidable forces atop the lineup. They’d a centered 32-year-old Nick Castellanos, who improved with each month. They noticed J.T. Realmuto, 33, battle by way of accidents to nonetheless be an above-average hitter on the hardest place within the sport.
“Yearly we don’t get it carried out, that’s another that passes us by,” Realmuto mentioned. “Clearly, I really feel like we’re all in our prime now. I don’t really feel like anyone’s near being out of their prime. So there’s nonetheless time for this group to get it carried out. However each time we don’t, it hurts a bit extra and stings a bit extra.”
It felt like they wasted one thing.
“It’s laborious,” Realmuto mentioned. “I imply, truthfully, something in need of a World Sequence this 12 months we’d have felt it was wasted. These are very excessive requirements. However, I imply, that’s what you need on this recreation. That’s what you need for our metropolis — to have these requirements of successful the World Sequence. And if we don’t, it’s a disappointment.”
Realmuto took two of the most important at-bats in Sport 4. The Phillies one way or the other clung to a one-run lead. He batted with runners on the corners and one out within the fourth inning. He simply wanted a fly ball. He hit one too shallow to proper subject. Within the sixth, the Phillies had runners on first and second and one out. Realmuto struck out on six pitches. The Phillies failed to attain an insurance coverage run for Hoffman.
“We knew we weren’t taking part in our greatest baseball coming into the postseason,” Realmuto mentioned. “However we have been hoping that when the lights turned on, we’d flip the swap and our offense would get again going. It simply didn’t occur for us.”
That’s a candid and regarding remark. The Phillies have been a terrific fastball-hitting workforce till they weren’t. They chased too many pitches. Do they suppose groups shaped a greater plan on easy methods to beat them over time?
“I don’t,” shortstop Trea Turner mentioned. “Personally, I believe we get ourselves out. I don’t suppose it issues who’s on the mound.”
As Turner spoke, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski circled the room to shake the gamers’ fingers. Dombrowski, the veteran govt who constructed this workforce, must take into account a greater stability for his lineup. His two commerce deadline acquisitions, Estévez and Austin Hays, disillusioned in October. There was no commerce that will have saved the Phillies; they made official overtures to the Chicago White Sox for hard-throwing lefty Garrett Crochet, however he wouldn’t have helped the Phillies rating extra runs in opposition to the Mets.
“My sense within the clubhouse with our gamers was that they by no means misplaced their edge,” Thomson mentioned. “They might have gotten drained over the course of the 12 months, however everyone does sooner or later.”
They’ll all be a 12 months older in 2025.
“For it to come back to an abrupt cease like this,” Bryson Stott mentioned, “I can’t actually put it into phrases.”
Harper packed his luggage. He lowered his bats into the customized trunk that follows him throughout the nation for eight months. Because the tying run within the ninth Wednesday evening, Schwarber struck out to finish it, which meant Harper completed the season within the gap.
“I want I may have had that final at-bat, clearly,” Harper mentioned. “In that state of affairs it will have been quite a lot of enjoyable, however simply wasn’t in a position to get it.”
Harper had his moments on this collection; his two-run homer in the course of Sport 2 woke up Residents Financial institution Park. That’ll be one of many few optimistic recollections from this postseason for the Phillies.
He’s accomplished one other season with out successful a World Sequence.
“That is going to be a loopy reply, however I believe my prime is for the following 10 years,” Harper mentioned. “You realize what I’m saying? I don’t suppose I’m faltering in any method. Type of the way in which I run my stuff, and what I do. … Clearly, age, proper? However on the similar time, age is getting youthful and youthful, so I don’t suppose that is my prime years. I believe the prime is coming as properly.”
It’s wishful pondering, however time is undefeated. Harper has discovered strategies to remain efficient and obtainable. He will probably be in the course of all of it. However Schwarber and Realmuto will probably be free brokers after the 2025 season. The workforce’s assortment of youthful gamers — Marsh, Stott and Alec Bohm — had uneven seasons. They didn’t all progress.
Bryce Harper and Trea Turner are signed to long-term contracts, however change is coming for this group of Phillies. (Vincent Carchietta / Imagn Photos)
Harper acknowledged the finite interval these Phillies have.
“However,” he mentioned, “on the similar time, you don’t pay Wheels and Noles should you don’t suppose you’re going to be aggressive for the following 5 years.”
This was what the Phillies believed they began in 2022 after they held an Irish wake contained in the guests’ clubhouse at Minute Maid Park after shedding the World Sequence. They may have by no means anticipated the heartbreak of 2023. The Phillies have been the higher workforce — and so they knew it.
This time, because the Mets celebrated their very own sudden present, that wasn’t as clear. Perhaps the Phillies had extra expertise. The Mets had a bigger payroll. They’re forward of schedule. They are going to be a drive. It was laborious, because the Phillies departed this place, to not really feel as if a chance had handed.
The ultimate bus of the season left at 9:25 p.m.
“I don’t know what to inform you,” Schwarber mentioned. “It f—ing hurts. It’s not a great feeling.”
(Prime photograph of Jeff Hoffman: Adam Starvation / Related Press)
