High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - Final Out: Phillies Drop Series Opener To Mets

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

Jack Fritz reacts to the Phillies losing 6-4 to the Mets on Thursday night. Presented by Miller Lite.To purchase Ring The Bell by Jack Fritz and Kevin Reavy go to RingTheBellBook.comTo buy tickets for the High Hopes Night in Reading CLICK HERE.

Miller Light, the official beer partner of your Philadelphia Phillies, is proud to serve as presenting sponsor of WIP's High Hopes Pod. So whether you're listening to the game, catching off on the latest High Hopes Pod or at the ballpark. Remember, it tastes like Miller time, Phillies fans. Celebrate responsibly. He kicks. Here's the pitch. Swing and a drive.

Right field coming on. Beatty. He will make the catch chest high, and that ends the ballgame. He hit it on the nose, but he hit it right at the right fielder. Bading and that ends the ball game. This close to a magical finish, well, semi-magical finish at CBP tonight, as the Phillies may never, may never hit a walk-off home run ever again. It has been over three years since the Phillies have hit a walk-off home run.

It has been longer since they hit a walk-off home run where they were behind in the ball game. The one against the Dodgers that Schwerber hit, that was tie ballgame. People forget that. The last one that they have hit, behind in a ballgame, was Garrett Stubbs off of Tanner Scott in 2022. 2020? What are we talking about? It was before they went to the World Series.

It's how long it's been since they've hit a walk-off home run where they are trailing in the baseball game. It's crazy. Every streak they have, you know, David Bell's thing, lasted forever. This thing, lasting forever. You would think you could luck into a walk-off home run, but they can't. It is the final out, by the way, which is sponsored by the Philadelphia Parking Authority, offering valet park at the Philadelphia airport. Jack Fritz's hanging out with you on this Thursday night as we react to a 6-4 Mets win as the Mets who have had a struggle of the season so far

slowly started to play better baseball. You certainly don't want to be, you don't want to let them get hot, but they come into the night, Phil's offense kind of shuts down, and they steal a game one. And there's a lot to get to, and we'll get into it.

The game wrap-up is sponsored by Roto Router. When plumbing problems hit, wrap them up quick and call Roto Router. Their team tackles clocks and leaks so you can stay in the game. Roto Router, your MVP for plumbing solutions. It's 215-5-92-94. If you were at the game, it was a beautiful night for a ballgame, a great CBP sunset.

And I'm sure you are stuck in traffic. So if you're stuck in traffic, get on in and give me your takeaways on this one. 215-592, 94-94. But let's get two with the biggest takeaways of the game, which are brought to you by Morgan. And Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. And there's a couple things that kind of hit me. immediately after that game.

The biggest one is of the laundry list of issues this team has. You know, they're playing good baseball. I think we all have accepted that they're a pretty good team. I don't think they're a great team, but they are a pretty good team. We have accepted some of their flaws. They currently don't have a fifth starter. They currently don't have a right fielder. and we can talk about Aaron Nola as being a part of that as well,

although I think Nola pitched well tonight. We'll get into that a little bit more later. Well, on top of those two clear and obvious needs that they need to address the trade deadline if they are going to win the World Series is they desperately need to find a leverage lefty because Jose Alvarado is Dungo. he is

done so heading into that game tonight a 1.64 whip on the year the guy lives with base runners on and you're just playing with fire the more and more that you do that kind of stuff

so he's not striking out guys at the same clip he's walking more guys the lefties are hitting I think 400 now off of them. Heading in tonight, it was 395, and he allowed a hit to a lefty, which not great for a leverage lefty reliever is lefties smoking the baseball off of you.

So, you know, Kyle Backus seems like he is close. He was pitching really well before he got hurt to his credit. Maybe he can work his way into being something. But we talk about the needs on this team if they're going to go on a run. Well, you've got to add leverage lefty to that because the guy that they are tasking with it is not getting the job done. And I don't think we'll get the job done. You know, the ERA has to be in the high fives or sixes now.

The whip is super high, not striking out guys at the same clip. And tonight was ridiculous, you know. In a night where the way Andrew Painter pitched yesterday, you have, you have to be. had to use a lot of guys. It ended up being a closer game for at least a little bit there. So you had to use some of your dudes. And, well, I guess it got kind of out of hand within enough time to what they could have. Regardless, the way Andrew Painter pitched yesterday forced them to use a lot of their bullpen arms. And tonight, you get that Seth Johnson inning, which is great. Alvarado is one of your guys, and he's the guy that blows up. Bryce Wilson threw two scoreless.

list after that. Alvarado is your guy and one of your leverage arms and he is not a leverage arm right now. So, you know, with bank struggling this year, Maze is fine, but I do think he is a fifth, sixth inning or, God forbid, a painer start where he has to come in the third. I don't know about him in leverage spots. Now, what I will say about Mesa versus Alvarado, and maybe this is something they consider is I do think Mesa isn't afraid of moments. And not that Avarado is, I just don't think he ever knows where the baseball's going. Mesa, at least, I do trust more often than not to come in and have stones and make pitches and throw strikes.

It's not always going to work because it's not like his stuff is overwhelming. His stuff's pretty good. But at least I think he's going to come in and throw strikes. So the Avarado thing is annoying. I wonder if Crawford could have made a play on that ball. It looks like he overraned it a little bit and misjudged it. So that obviously could have helped Alvarado out. The Marcus Simeon play there where they overturn the strikeout

and immediately it's a triple off the wall stinks. But even so, even if he gets through that, it's more traffic on the base paths and another lefty getting hit off them. they're going to need to find someone that can do that job. Maybe it's Backus. You know, Backus Meza, that's your lefties for a little bit here, as they try to salvage something from the Alvarado situation. But, man, he just, he seems done.

I mean, they gave $9 million this year coming off of last year where he was amazing, but who knows what he was on, and then he came back after that, and he was horrendous, horrendous. So incredibly, incredibly disappointing in a game that really could have gone either way and won that kind of feel like they were going to win. It did. And then the Alvarado hitting happened and it certainly did not seem that way. 215-592. 94-94.

And then the other thing is just, you know, once again, the offense sort of goes lifeless after the fourth. And they allowed Manai to settle in and the Mets bullpen. They did their job. They didn't get a hit from the fourth inning on. until the Crawford base hit in the ninth. I think they walked three times in between those innings, but still pretty much packed their bags and went home. And that's really annoying.

And Harper is certainly going through a really bad slump right now. I think last 30 games he's hitting under 190. You know, tonight, which feels like it happens once a game, he hits a ball and a guy makes a great play on it. You know, Soto makes that play. and robs him of a double. So, but still, you know, the overall numbers of the overall numbers, he looks a little bit jumpy at the plate.

I guess the good part is, like, I think in years past, you could see if the wrist was affecting him. It doesn't really look like that right now. But when he's struggling and him and Schwerber are just so key to his offense being able to put up runs and when one of those guys are struggling or both them are struggling, the entire offense certainly feels like they're struggling. And Harper is going through certainly a rut right now.

He's still walking, which is good, but you need some impact, and he is not providing much impact. I think his slugging percentages in like the threes during that time period. So certainly cooling off after he got hot and really helped raise all his numbers. I think after the, I think after the, Toronto series. If you took out the first six games of the year, he was hitting 287 with a 900 OPS. So again, it's been a pretty quick decline now to a 248 average. But he is, he is certainly struggling. And then the last thing here before you go to the phones is I thought it was pretty

good tonight. The Soto home runs were annoying. The second one was crazy. He didn't think he he got it and just kept going and going and going. I mean, he's a special, special player, so that happens. But I thought for the most part, you know, the command was better, the velocity was ticking up. He did throw a slider, which I've never seen him throw before. So maybe he's working on some new pitches. But I didn't think this was, I mean, we have to be resigned to the fact that he's a five-inning pitcher now because he can't really attack the strike zone in the same way.

So he's got to just pitch around the strike zone. and hope that, you know, hitters chase and make weak contact, or because when he comes in the strike zone, like what happened with Soto, you know, talented hitters don't really miss it. But overall, I thought it was a final. He would take five innings three runs from Maranola at this point. And it could have been enough to win a ballgame, but ultimately it was not.

It's good, David Merrill. What's happening, Dave? Oh, geez. The Alvarado mess in the bullpen is starting to really, rear its ugly head. I mean, it's a six over six ERA or halfway through the year and that's your top left-handed option. That's not a good thing. I mean, we just keep on adding to the list of things that they need at the trade deadline, left-handed pitcher, right-fielder, back-end starter. You know, it's getting to the point where they're putting bubble gum on

holes and they're one one real injury away from being in trouble, whether it be a key bat like Harper or Swarper or one of the three, you know, reliable starters. They're just a tonight and last night yesterday reminded me the nine and 19 Phillies. They just didn't really feel like they were in, I just felt like they were beaten tonight and beaten yesterday and not much you can do about honestly. Yeah, and I appreciate the phone call, Dave. Yeah, yesterday was disheartening. Tonight,

tonight really felt like a coin flip. It did. I like the way that they fought back, and the Derrick Hill off the off the bag was a good little moment. But, you know, Dave's right when talking about they've been

pretty lucky, injury-wise. Now, Trey, I don't know how this would constitute lucky, but, you know, Trey leaves with the calf thing so we'll see if he's back in there on Saturday I would assume he

would be but they've gotten pretty lucky with the injury history and especially with the starting staff knock on wood I think it's one of the things that Kauffin does so well is developing a plan for these guys where they

they have a really good arm care routines to where they they just they haven't really gotten hurt And that's been integral to their success. 2-15-5-9-9-2-94 to get in. On the other side, we'll get to the player of the game and some other things that stuck out tonight. All that's cut on next here on the final out on Sports Radio 94WIP.

Swing and a high fly ball, right field, it's deep. Marsh is back and looking up and out of room, it is gone. And that one hit off the second deck sign-inch. For Juan Soto, his 17th lifetime home run in this ballpark. And he has given the Mets, an early one-nothing-le-le-leaf. I tell you what, I don't like the trend of the last two games of left-handed hitters just peppering the second deck, smoking balls off the wall of the second deck. It has not been a good two days for some of the Phillies pitchers,

and Juan Soto has always made that ballpark feel small. I believe he, I think Francky said he jumped to fourth all-time in home runs. against the Phillies at CPP. And I think Harper is still ahead of him. And Harper obviously hasn't played against the Phillies in seven years. Obviously, he killed them when he was a national. But Juan Soto is our player of the game, brought to by South Jersey Gas. Make the smart play and save energy and money with South Jersey Gas at SJG saveenergy.

com. I don't know if this is relatable for anyone else out there. but it is so funny with this team because when they lose and they lose like they did tonight where Alvarado serves it up

and the offense looks lifeless and some of the big guys are struggling I always am just like I can't wait for this air to be over I need new blood in here this sucks and then whenever they win it's like these guys are my guys and they deserve a ring there's been a couple games this year the Brewer's game that Sunday with Kyle Harrison just making the Phillies look like little leaguers

that was one of those where it's just like this sucks I can't wait for this this group to be out of here and then they smoked the Marlins the first two games and you're like we might have something here and then the last two games happened you're like nope nope they're not very good I don't know I think that's just being a baseball fan. It's a, you got to be a real sick and twisted person to make this your favorite sport and like really, really care about it because there's so much failure in it. Highs are very, very high. But man, there's just wrapping yourself up in a sport where the best players fail seven out of ten times.

You know, the TV broadcast tonight had George Brad and Schmitty on there. Of course, Schmitz, like, I wasn't even a good hitter the whole time. And, you know, Brett's on there. And he's like, yeah, I got 3,000 hits, but I also made 7,000 outs. And it's just, that's baseball. It's such a, it's such a cruel game, such a cruel game. And no better example of that than Andrew Bainer, who is really going through and learning and going through his, the, the, growing pains of learning at the big league level.

And you could see, you could see the game wearing on him. What a miserable sport. What a miserable sport. So some other things that did stick out to me tonight. I mentioned Nola. I did think he looked pretty good for Aaron Nola standards, like the modern day Aaron Nola, where I don't think he can be in the strike zone as much

or else he's going to get blasted, so he has to be out of the strike zone and pick his spots when he can go in. Like if you want him to be more in the strike zone and try to be more efficient and generate soft contact. The problem is that there's going to be probably more home runs because when he makes mistakes in the strike zone, the hitters don't miss it, so he has to be more nibbly, I think.

And then, yeah, Trey left the game with the gap contusion. We'll see what that kind of turns into. I wouldn't have brought him back until Saturday anyway. He did get the three hits. That was good. But I thought he needed a break. if I needed a time to step away and get off his feet for a couple days. Well, maybe this gives them an opportunity.

We don't know what the diagnosis is there. We'll see if he's in the lineup on Saturday. Bone continues to look great. Two doubles, both opposite field. The second one wasn't as impressive. The first one, the first one was a rocket. But continuing to take good swings, it looks like he's trying to lift the baseball,

which is good, look like he's trying to do with, hit the ball with authority. He did ground into a double play. I'm not going to make the 6-4-3 joke. We don't need to change the number. He's been too good. So we don't need to make little childlike jokes about his jersey number, even though he did ground into a double play that I couldn't believe he did because there's a ground ball off the middle that the short stuff had to make a great play on.

And he was still out because he is one of the slowest people I've ever seen. But he legitimately looks. really good to play. And then my biggest takeaway the game, one of them, is how good Seth Johnson looked. Was that the same guy that I've watched Beyond the Seesaw from Lehigh Valley in here over the last couple

of years? I'd heard that they are very pro-Seth Johnson and the changes he's made, but to actually see it in person and, you know, Spike got a tweet tonight and, you know, a lot of people have made the similar joke, but

when we were growing up, and I I like that I can finally kind of say when we were growing up as a 32-year-old. I feel like I've crossed that threshold. But a guy like Joel Zemaya and Luke Nichols is produced in the program tonight, are you aware of the goat, Joel Zemaya, or no? No, I really wish I was, though, because that's a great name. So Joel Zemaya was on the 06 Tigers, and he threw 101, and you would have thought he had to get arrested for witchcraft because he was so disgusting.

But he blew his arm out like everyone did the 3001, and he wasn't the same guy. As you are producing the late shows tonight, I need you to do a deep dive on YouTube of Joel Zamaia. I got nothing going on right after this, whoever's coming up after you, so I'll just watch Highlands then. Well, the guy coming up next is a total traitor to the city of Philadelphia. But that was like the unicorn.

Joel Zemaiah, 101. This is unlike anything we ever seen in baseball. And now, Seth Johnson, we all say, is horrible. And he's sitting 99 to 100 with a hammer slider. The game has just changed. It's why whenever anyone bitches about how guys can't hit for average anymore, it's like, do you realize what these guys would do against pitchers back in the day? Miss me with the nonsense that these guys don't know how to hit anymore.

They have to be much more selective of when they can unleash on baseballs. And that's not to say the old players couldn't hit in today's game, because in today's game, I think that they would adjust to the modern day. But just the complaining about the averages, these guys are sick. I don't know what to tell you. And it was an impressive Seth Johnson out. He was in the strike zone. It looks like he fixed his command.

He had conviction in his fastball, which is really, really important. and, like, unluckily, I guess, for him, they're in a pretty good spot with the right-handers out there. I mean, Keller is hurt, so this could create an opportunity for him, but Boland's pitching really well, Kirkring's pitching really well, you feel good about, I still feel good about Schubert. I like the stones that Max Lazzar pitches with.

So they've got a plethora of right-handed options down there, But maybe Seth Johnson can work his way into being something or a little bit of trade bait. On the other side, we will get to the wow moment of the game, take your phone calls, and give a little look ahead to the weekend against the Mets, here on the final out on Sports Radio 94 WIPA. When the stakes rise and the lights get bright, that's when you find out who can really swim.

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He didn't catch it, comes off the wall, two runs are home, Simeon on his way to third. He'll be there sliding with a triple. And the bats now have a six to three lead. I was driving my second son around during that time period to try to get him asleep. And the lack of hope in Fransky's voice was just, you know, sometimes in the ball is in the air and you're watching it,

it feels like it's just never going to come down. That's what I felt listening to Fransky there. I was like, is it ever going to come down? Like, are they going to catch it? Or they're going to get out of this inning? No, they weren't, of course, right after the foul tip that was not called. And the next pitch is a triple off the wall. I do wonder if Crawford could have made a play on that.

I couldn't tell if on the replay that it bounced off the wall and then behind him or if it just, he overran it. Marsh also had a dog bleep read in the first inning. They allowed the second run to come around. Like sprinted in way too fast and the ball flew over his head. So not a banner night for those two. But again, to Crawford's credit, I couldn't tell if it bounced off the wall first and then behind him or if he just overran it. Because it kind of looks like on the replay that he just overran it.

But regardless, that is our wow moment of the game brought to you by the New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism. From Waterfalls to Fairways Mountain Resorts to Lighthouse Tours. Find your wow. and visit nj.com. The Simeon triple broke it open. Phil's threatened in the ninth, and I was just begging, just begging for a walk-off home run.

But nevertheless, we may never see the Phillies ever hit one, ever again. And the broadcast was certainly trying to will it into existence, but it was all for not. No Phillies game tomorrow on a, Friday night, we got World Cup action down at the link. So, you know, clearing it out for them. It's going to be weird. A Friday night without baseball. You don't get that too often. So at least after opening weekend where they never play on Friday. If Thursday, there's no rain delay or anything.

So no game tomorrow, which means we're back on Saturday and Sunday. And we get two nationally televised games. the radio team always working hard. They got to work every game. No one just comes in and takes over their booth. So they're still grinding. But Sanchez versus Peralta. Freddie Peralta has been pretty good this year. It's been very Freddie Peralta-ask. It's probably going to get traded unless the Mets kind of go on a miracle run here as he is a impending free agent. But Chris Sanchez is looking to bounce back after that Brewer start. That was not his best. So Sanchez versus Peralta on Saturday, and then Sunday, Zach Wheeler versus TBD. The Mets have not announced a starter as of now.

So Wheeler facing off against his own team as he is looking to bring his ERA in his first year back from a blood clot and thoracic outlet syndrome to under two. An absolute horse and an ace in all respects. That's going to do it for me. Broads, the number one Keynes fan in the entire world, is coming up next. I'm sure to talk about the parade, his parade route, his big days out in Vegas. I mean, it's summer of Broads. It's summer of Broads. So he's got you next.

He will take it through the rest of the night here on Sports Radio 94, WIP.