High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - Final Out: Phillies Get Blown Out (Again)

Episode Date: April 15, 2026

Jack Fritz reacts to the Phillies losing to the Cubs by a score of 10-4 and tries to figure out how the team can get things clicking before the rubber match on Wednesday night. Presented by Miller Lite. To purchase Ring The Bell by Jack Fritz and Kevin Reavy go to RingTheBellBook.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Oh, welcome on in. It is the final out. Jack Fritz hanging out with you here on this Tuesday night. Let's try this again after what was just a debacle last night. here on the final out. The final out is always a sponsored by the Philadelphia Parking Authority. 215-88729-944 to hop on in, react to what was a just a stinker.

I mean, just a stinker tonight. Good spark early. Noah looks sharp. Edmundo goes yard. All right, here we go. Here comes a little bit of a run. But once again, they sort of peter out. The game wrap-up, sponsored by Roto Router, when plumbing problems hit, wrap them up quick and called Roto Router.

Their team tackles clogs and leaks so you can stay in the game. Roto Router, your MVP for plumbing solutions. 888, 729-94 to get in. If you're stuck in traffic, I mean, if you stayed until the end of that one, God bless you. After the bank's home run, I felt like the whole ballpark was leaving. But if you're stuck in traffic and want to react to this one, or you watched it on your couch like I did. I would love to hear from you at 888, 729-94.

But the biggest takeaways of the game are brought to you by Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. And I guess more of a holistic look at tonight, but really the entire season is they just can't really find their footing. They can't find and settle into a rhythm. And, you know, last night they go out and score. 13. And of course, tonight, they can't capitalize on that. And again, momentum's only as good as the next day starter. Well, they start with an opener. And then they got to Colin Ray really quick.

And Emuto took him yard, and that was great. And then I think he retired 10 straight. Shark got fives and pitched six solid innings. So once again, they score the three runs in one inning. I know they scored the one run late and they kind of had a moment and, you know, right struck out with the base is loaded. That was disappointing. But overall, you know, they just can't really settle into the year. And the starting pitching hasn't been as great as we had hoped. Nola tonight, he had that 30-pitched third inning. I thought that kind of sped up his night in a way.

I know he ended up only throwing like 84 pitches, but when you throw 30 in an inning, it usually you get out of there rather than letting kind of go. So we had the 30-pitch third, four straight hits off of them. And I think the boss kind of got up in the zone a little bit, and the Cubs didn't miss. But at the same time, you know, five innings, three runs with how on paper this bullpen should be is largely, that should be good enough. But so far this year, it hasn't. I mean, they're not playing complimentary baseball at all. You know, a night where the offense will have a good night, the starting pitching doesn't show up.

Or they're in the game, they're in the game, and the bullpen kind of falters. And the defense has been atrocious all year. I mean, heading into today, they're the worst defensive team in baseball. And that should not be the case. You have a great defensive player behind the dish in JT. Harper, by defensive metrics at first base, is one of the worst defensive first baseman this year, which, I mean, eye test-wise, it doesn't really bear out. I think he's been perfectly fine over there.

Stott, Stott, but that play at second base was bad. Trey is better than he's been in his first two years of that contract, but he's also had those Trey moments. You know, Bones been fine, let a ball go underneath his glove last night that wasn't great. You know, but overall, they're not, they should not be a bad defensive team. And they just are right now. and then the bad base running over the weekend was excruciating. And you keep looking at them, and they'll have their good games.

Last night was a good game, 100%. You know, Seth Johnson made that closer than it had to be. But I think the thing that's frustrating by the start of this season is they look like a team that is expecting to make the playoffs rather than going out there and earning it. And it's just the sloppy play and the bad pitching and like just not playing crisp, solid, fundamental baseball. Like I know it's little things, but throwing to the right bases, backing up bases with pitchers, catching the ball at second base, making a good throw to second base. I mean, tonight's just one example. I mean, they had a horrible defensive weekend against the dimebacks.

Sunday was brutal, well documented. Friday, if Alck Bone charged that ball fully and makes a throw to first base in the big Lizardo winning, maybe that's a different ball game. But I just, I haven't loved the intensity level or the, I haven't loved the, I haven't loved the makeup of the team so far. looks a lot of going through the motions, a lot of going through the motions and relying on, you know, being the veteran team and we've been here before and we know how to do this. Well, you can wake up one day and all of a sudden you're further behind in a standing. So it's one of those things where you want to just like wake up and go.

But man, they just, it's one step forward, two steps back. they have a good game and then they step right back. So yeah, definitely an annoying game tonight. 888-729-94-94 to get in. Sean's in Limerick. What's happening, Sean?

What's going on, Jack? Coming back from that disaster of a game tonight. So I want to touch on Nola for a second at the end here, but I just want to call out, obviously, rough game. They put themselves in a position in that eighth inning, had bases loaded, I just want to talk about Topper there for a second.

I'm sorry. Like, I mean, really no feel for the game at that point. Like putting Bowman, bases loaded to try and get those runs home. I mean, he's looked lost at the plate. I don't care what baseball experts say right left. I mean, you let Marsh get up there. And so he's earned that right the way he's swung the bat this year, that I don't pull Marsh at that point for Bome.

Because, I mean, he went up there for four straight pitches and swung, and then we're done. it's over. It's just like that kind of stuff from him. It's just like it's mind-numbing on top of some of the stuff where like maybe addressing some of the base running issue. It just seems like this team knows that they're going to get that rope with him. And so there's no accountability when this kind of stuff happens. But for Topper, I mean, that's a horrible look. I understand his bench is thin and Sosa's already playing. At that point, you just let Marsh go. I mean, I don't know what your thoughts are there, but I would not have put boom in there in the eight. Base is loaded two out. when you need the big hit. Yeah, I got you, Sean, and I appreciate the phone call and get home safely. You know, it's a double-edged sword. If Marsh goes up there against a tough lefty who immediately has career 201 against lefties, Marsh is not proven to be able to hit left-handed pitching,

and he strikes out on three pitches or strikes out on four pitches, like we've seen him do a lot, then you're killing Rob Thompson for not going to a righty in that situation. and you'd say, you know Marsh can't hit lefties, why is he up there? Bome, I think, is a, he is going through it right now. Alec Boma is going through it right now. And, you know, who knows how much the parent stuff is weighing on him. But even that first pitch, it's a ball off the plate, and he's not even looking to challenge it.

So he looks super lost. I mean, I probably would have gone to Kemp in that situation. I mean, that's why he's here is for something like that, and he ended up playing left field anyway, but I guess he's trying to give Bome a chance to get off the Schneide there, but it was not meant to be. Yeah, it's one of those ones where you look back on and say, why do you do it, but I'm fine pulling Brandon Marsh in platoon situations

until he gets enough at bats against the lefty to where he can really make him pay. So he just hasn't proven to be a good enough hitter against left-in-knit pitching, and even when he gets hits, it's usually just like flails about it and dumps it over the second baseman's head. It's not hard contact. 888-729-94-94. Now, there is one person to blame for this loss tonight,

and I do hope he's still driving home. And that is Scott Fransky. I mean, he just could not stop talking about Ian Hap versus Aaronnola. 0 for 18 heading to the game. I mean, he must have brought it up 17 times. And then, of course, Ian Hap goes off. And then Alex Bregman, oh, oh, for nine. Can he can never figure out Aaron Nola.

And bang, it has the game of his season. It has three hits. First three OBI game since, like, July last year. Eh, that's on Francky. I mean, he's got to wear that one. Just could not stop going back to it. Oh, O for nine. Oh, for 18.

These guys can't figure out Aaron Nola. And then bang. One guy to blame for tonight. Squarely on the shoulders of Scott Franke. On the other side. We'll get to the player of the game. Another test tomorrow. Speaking of, if this team has any balls, we'll figure that out.

And a move that is long overdue. It's the final out here on Sports Radio 94 WIPA. Hey, Ontario. Come on down to BetMGM Casino. And see what our newest exclusive, the Price is Right Fortune Pick, has. to offer. Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show only at Betmgm. Check out how we've reimagined three of the show's iconic games like Plinko, Clifhanger,

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please contact Connects Ontario at 1866-531-2,600, to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGEMM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Two and one, the count, and the pitch. Swing and a drive. Well hit towards the angled wall. Crow Armstrong looking up and that is gone. Way back to the left of center. It's a three-run home run for Edmundo Sosa.

He hammered that pitch. He sure did. 442 feet. Wow. And it's three-nothing Phillies on the Homer by Sosa. Man, everything felt right in the world at that point, huh? I mean, Nola was shoving. Sosa goes yard Thompson looks like a genius

We're going to roll Colin Ray stinks But it was not meant to be as the Phil's end up getting steam rolled tonight Disappointing Tanner Banks outing Disappointing Tim May's outing Tim May's outing Tim Mays has been so good And listen I always will trust the PSAC brethren In a moment But you know he was brought in on a minor league deal

To be more of a you need a big out in the fifth or, you know, it's out of hand early, here's Maze, that you can give you two innings and go from there. All of a sudden, he was pitching really well, hadn't allowed to run yet, and he's in a tie game in the sixth, because, you know, you don't want to go to, you can't go to Keller at that point, you know, Kirkring pitch last night, you want to save Alvarado because they haven't flipped those two in the bullpen pecking order. You want to save him for late, you know, banks, but, you know, it's not a bad maze of spot.

They flip around Matt Schall. They take Belstaros out of the game. So, but he just, he couldn't get done. His command was way off. He said great command this year. But, I mean, he was hit a batter, walked. It was a brutal, brutal Tim May's outing. But that, that Imuno Sosa home run, and obviously his defense at third base and had another hit late,

which Ian Hap almost got to, which was crazy. He is a really, man, watching P. Crowe Armstrong and watching Ian Hap in left field, it's pretty special. Those guys are amazing. I mean, Pete Crow Armstrong, almost throwing out of Mundo at third base, where he's basically flat-footed, was crazy. And it's not like Mundo's some slow guy. You know, Mundo can move a little bit.

So, you know, that was... Those guys are pretty, pretty impressive out there. So, you know, but I do want Mundo to start playing more. He should not be a once-a-week type of guy only playing his left-in at pitching, and especially with what Baum and what Stott are giving you right now, just nothing. And I know Stott made a really nice defensive play in this game.

It seems like it makes a good defense to play every single night, but the batch is not there. And Sosa, I'm not saying he needs to play every day. Not at all because we've seen him get exposed in situations like that. But I do think he needs to play more. And Muno Sosa brings a good energy to this team. Rob Thompson benched Alec Bohn in a playoff series for. at Mundoosa because of the energy. And right now, Alec Bome is not giving off great energy, great vibes.

And, man, he just reminds you of like E.O.R. from winning the Poo. He really does. I know that that's because I do have a three-year-old at home. So I'm very, you know, in the depths of winning the Poo. But he's just, and the strikeout, or the strikeout the eighth was, The only shock was that it was four pitches rather than three. So I think Amundo is going to start forcing their hand and should be playing more. And I hope that he gets out there and does his thing.

The player of the game brought you by South Jersey Gas, make the smart play, save energy and money with South Jersey Gas at SJG saveenergy.com. I'm going Colin Ray. They had a really good offensive game as well. But he kept the Phillies at bay all night long after the Amunos. so it was a home run and never really, you know, he never really let the Phillies up, which was annoying, because Colin Ray is not exactly blow you away with his stuff. So then not being able to hit him was beyond annoying.

So I'll give it to Colin Ray. Now, I did mention, are we going to see any stones from this team tomorrow night? Well, they won't because they never do this kind of stuff. I think the only player, the only player on this team that I've actually seen intentionally throw at people was Matt Strong, who was no longer here. And PCA stealing up 10-4 and ended up getting a runner indifference on it. So it didn't even count as a stolen base. That was nonsense. Absolutely nonsense. Totally broke the unwritten rules of baseball. There was no retaliation tonight. We'll see if there is retaliation tomorrow. But knowing this team, like I think I know this team,

there will not be an ounce of retaliation. But that was Bush League by Pete Crow Armstrong. On the other side, in addition to your phone calls, again, 888, 72944. We'll look at it to tomorrow, get to the wow play of the game, and an update on Zach Wheeler's night in Redding. All of that's coming up next. Well, in Somerset. He was a Redding fight and Phil.

All of that's coming up next on the final out on Sports Radio 94 WIPA. The 3-2 again, swing it to comebacker. Mesa's got it, fires to second, and it's off the glove of Stott. And everybody's going to be safe. Turner backed it up, kept it in the infield, and the bases are loaded as Tim Maza fires low and Stott couldn't hang on to it. Welcome back. It is the final out. Jack Fritz hanging out with you here on this Tuesday night. The final out is always sponsored by the Philadelphia Parking Authority. And that is my wow moment of the game, which is brought to you by the New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism, from waterfalls to Fairways, Mountain Resorts to Lighthouse Tour. find your wow at visit nj.com. I just swear.

I have not seen in the last couple of years a Phillies pitcher just field the ball, turn around, throw the ball to second base. And it's one of these things where throw the ball to second base, they complete the double play, and it's, you know, we all go about our merry way.

And it's one of these things where I sit here and I say these guys are big leaguers be big leaguers like do we really need to do pfps do we really need to do bunt defenses do we really need to practice bunting do we really need to practice you know relays from the outfield do we really need to practice hitting the cutoff man do we really need to do this kind of stuff. Like, you guys are major leaguers.

But my problem is is under Rob Thompson, and really, I mean, this is going back a while, but, you know, with this current group, they've never been good of this stuff. I mean, the same all gripes

happen with this team every year. So they just try to live and die by the home run, even though they're not really power hitters. And they're not a fundamental baseball team. They're not a smart baseball team. You know, Bryce called it bad baseball over the weekend. And it's like, well, you help contribute to that in certain ways.

And they're just a really not fundamentally sound locked in team. And I just don't believe that they make and they don't put a number. enough emphasis on doing the little things right. Because I just don't see it. We haven't seen it in years. Not that I want the Phillies to be built like the Brewers, but it feels like the Brewers execute every little thing well. They do all the little things well.

The Dodgers, the highest payroll team in the sport, were able to execute a wheel play in a playoff game to essentially end it. Like, I couldn't imagine the Phillies executed in that play. in a hundred years. It's like they don't think. They don't think out there. They don't do little things well. You know, Matt Strom saying that we should have practiced PFPs more.

And like, yeah, you know, we practice PFPs, but I think it was an optional practice. We're like, but they don't put an emphasis on this stuff. And that's a, that's an annoying thing to me, you, baseball fans that like, like the little things of baseball is that, it does not feel like this team over the last couple years, and especially this year, put enough emphasis on this stuff. And when you are running it back with the same core, these guys have played together for a long time. They should know their little intricacies.

Like, they should know these things. It doesn't seem that way. So, you know, that play was annoying, but it feels like once a game. They have these just blunders out there. to where they're kind of just going through the motions and expecting to win. Rather than doing the right things, it takes to win baseball games. They're not playing winning baseball. And, you know, over the last couple years in the regular season, they've done a good job of playing winning baseball. And this year, they just don't have that little spark it doesn't look like to me.

Don't have the little bit of a juice or, I don't know. I don't know. It was an annoying loss. And when you see even like Adoli's sort of the wrong guy, he almost hits the runner on second base and Trey has to dive in front of him, it's like, what are we doing? And just like throw the right bases. Now, Adolies did have a seed tonight from right field, which was good to see.

Zach Wheeler tonight up in Somerset. He did face the minimum through five, which was good to see. He struck out nine. He pitched into the sixth. He was 92 to 95. Good, good, good, good, good. He, in that inning, George Lombard, who was one of the Yankees' top prospects,

he got him. And he kind of had good swings on him all night, but he got him for a double there. And then he struck out the one batter, and he was only at 71 pitches, I want to say. so he definitely could have kept going but they pulled him for pitch count reasons and the guy who came in

allowed the two runners to score that were left on. So he didn't get a chance to finish that inning and the guy who was brought in after him did inherit those runners. I'm sure if Zach Wheeler closes out that inning it does not go the same way. I did watch it.

I think it's been like his other starts where secondaries look really good. Curveball looks really good. The fastball at the minor league level is not getting squared up, but I still have some fastball fear with Zach Wheeler. It was good to see him touch 95, 100%. That's great.

I'm sure the warm weather helps, much, much, much needed and certainly something that you want to see. My biggest fear with Zach Wheeler right now is he's just not generating the same kind of swing and miss that he used to on that four-scene fastball. The sinker still generates weak contact. He can throw it nullish, where it's like up in the zone and start at the left-hand hitters hip and come back. And it can do things that way. But the four-seamer, the traditional four-seamer that he can ride and he can overpower hitters with and dominate a game with,

that's the pitch that I'm not seeing. That's the pitch I'm not seeing. Everything else looks like Zach Wheeler, but the four-seemers is the one that. that is giving me some cause for pause as to how will this look at the big league level? Because he's just not getting much swing and miss with it. And that's been a pitch. He's always been able to generate swing and miss with. So I think it was a positive night struck out a lot of guys.

Faced the minimum. The runs weren't totally his fault. If he pitches through that inning, I would be surprised if they scored three runs. But just eye test-test-wise, the fastball still does not. The four-seamer doesn't look like how it used to look. Now, 92-95, good. He's going to start on Sunday, and then I think one more, and then they'll make a determination.

But he's getting closer and closer to being here. I just hope that when he comes back up, he is good to go. Tomorrow, 640, no getaway game. So we have a 640 game. Imanaga for the Cubs versus Jesus Lazzardo, you know, who buy the match. tricks has been arguably the most unlucky pitcher in baseball so far this year. And my thing with him is the stuff looks really good.

And he had some of these starts last year where it was dominant early and then kind of blew up on him. But I still think there's a lot of good there with Hayes's Azard. And I think he's going to get on track here and start rolling. And hopefully that starts tomorrow against the Cubs, shoved against the Cubs last year in Chicago. So hopefully he can go out there and let's win a series. You know, let's win a series.

You can't lose two straight series at home to start a nine-game homestand, especially the Braves coming in who are playing good baseball, 11 and 7 won tonight. So they are, Dom Smith is off the scrap heap and has an OPS over 1,000. It's crazy. Braves Devil Magic might be back. So tomorrow, Lazardo versus Imanaga. definitely one of these times where you need,

you need Lazzardo to get going a little bit. And really, the starting staff in general. Starting staff in the bullpen, like the expected stats are all suggesting they're going to be fine, but they got to start throwing, putting together some real,

dominant outings, because they should be, especially with the way the offense is going. So hopefully Lazzardo can get on a roll tomorrow and get this thing started. But that's going to do it for me. Thanks to everyone who hung out and listen to the final out tonight. We survived.

There's some shaky moments, but we got through it. Francisco Rojas produced the final out tonight. Tom Kelly is coming up next. He'll take you through the rest of the night here on Sports Radio 94WIP.