High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - Final Out: Phillies Struggles At Citi Field Continue

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

Jack Fritz reacts to another Phillies loss in Queens as the lead in the NL East moves down to five games. 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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Limited time only at participating Wendy's Taxes Extra. and a 2-0 from Duran. Swinging a liner into left, it's a base hit, the ball game's over. John Duran fails to record him out. Four straight hits. And the Mets celebrate a walk-off win, and the Phillies have lost nine in a row in New York.

Oh, I hate him so much. I hate that Mets team so much. I hate playing in the city field. I hate everything about what is currently happening. to this baseball team and on top of all that I really really really really am annoyed at how these last two nights have gone up in Queens welcome on in it is the final out Jack Fritz hanging out with you thankfully wasn't on last night for the 13 to 3 debacle well guess what you know what tonight was a little bit of hope followed by

immediate feeling of it's the hope that kills you so a another frustrating night another night where a lot of the demons of last october creep up another night where it all sends a cold shiver down your spine as we are inching towards september and getting closer and closer to october the ghosts of october's past are creeping back in the game wrap-up is sponsored by roto-ruder when plumbing problems hit wrap them up quick and call roto-ruder their team tackles clogs and leaks so you can stay in the game roto-ruder your MVP for plumbing solutions 215-592-94 if you are driving home from city field or watch this one like i did uh from my house we'd love to hear from you want to hear all your takeaways all your

frustration we'll vent and talk our way through this one together the biggest takeaways the game brought to you by morgan and morgan america's large century law firm and the biggest takeaway continues to be i just feel like they have to work so hard to try to win games in that ballpark nine straight losses and any time it feels like they have an ounce of momentum and it's like there it is there it is there it is there it is They find a way to give it back. And they just have to work and work and work. And to their credit, I thought they fought decently tonight.

I thought they played with some desperation. I thought Lazzardo pitched desperate. I thought Bryce came into the game ready to go. Even a little thing like Weston Wilson diving and going all out for that ball. I thought they had good fight tonight. I don't think they laid down. I thought Monday night they laid down. tonight what was actually the most annoying part was they just looked deficient they just didn't

look like they had enough and we're talking about a Mets team that's five games behind them in the division that's the annoying part like every time it they they have an ounce start to go their way. They immediately give it right back. And I thought Rob Thompson in the post game press conference portrayed confidence in this team, and you have to. But it felt more like wishful thinking rather than the truth up there. And it's just, it's so disheartening. And it's so, I think, especially in this city. And sometimes I say in this city in a bit, but, but, but, but, or as a bit, but in this city to have to feel like you are getting owned by one of your arrivals, it sucks.

And especially that team full of those guys, Alonzo and Nimmo and McNeil and having to deal with them and deal with the fans coming off of what happened last year in October, all it does is send a cold shiver down your spine thinking about last October and how even with all the good baseball they've played and and how different some things have felt it's so hard to just shake that and and and move past the Mets thing like my most wishful thinking right now is I just of the Mets don't make the playoffs so I don't have to deal with it. So we don't have to deal with it. That is so sad. It is so sad in a bad way to think. But it's pretty much where I'm at because they don't go up there and play well. They just don't. They play tight. They don't

play it themselves. They try to do too much. You know, I appreciate Bryce trying to steal a base there and make something happen. Like I do like that. But at the same time, I do wonder if that sets in a kind of panic with everyone else in the team. It's a tough balance because if he gets the base there, it's like there's Bryce making something happening and being aggressive. On the other hand, it's like, oh, bleep, is this what we all have to do now?

And my second biggest takeaway, again, 215, 5992-94-94, talk a lot about how this team is going to go as far as their stars take them what a disappointing series so so far for the stars Bryce was good tonight but top seven second pitch of the inning grounds out and then strikes out against edwin dyes kyle schwarber absolute no show by the way no show in the met series last year outside of the first inning against sanga tray all of a sudden just expanding the strike zone again looking just like October. That's terrifying. Those three have to be the stalwart for this team. Lindor and Alonzo and Soto, like those are the guys for the Mets. And those guys just feel more up to it in these games than the Phillies three stars, even though the Phillies three stars are on

par with those three stars. But even in the ninth inning, a perfect microcosma of this, four straight hits off the Phil's Closer. And that's the third takeaway. The two guys, Kirkering and Durong, Kirkering has to do a better job with inherited runners. Like, Kirkering's been money for a majority of the season. But when we talk about the team as a hole. And this feeling like October, well, recently for Kirkcoring, it is felt like October where the moment just looks a little too big for him. The lights look a little too bright for him. And there's been a lot of inherited runners that have scored on him where he can't just put out the fire. If he does a better job in that inning, they have a, this is not breaking news.

They're a better chance of winning this game. I mean, the Bader home run was great. That made it 5-5. If Kirkering does a better job, they may have taken the lead there rather than just tie the game up. And then Duran, I don't know if we've missed a bat

since getting hit in the foot. Since he got hit in the foot, he has not looked like the same pitcher. And, again, not breaking any news here. but they really need him to be great. And that's a spot tonight, a marquee spot where their superstar closer goes and does his job. The Philly superstar closer? Not even close.

Not even close. I mean, they were squaring up the splitter. Four-seamer wasn't missing a bat. The stupid, you know, Brett Beatty hit was annoying. I get it. But four straight hits off of Joanne Duran. and ever since he has gotten hit in the foot just has not looked like the same pitcher

and I I don't know it's it was a exhilarating night in the middle portion a a brutal ending and annoying like beginning of the game

and you just leave these games having a big fear of is this how October is going to go? And I hate to be in that mode on August 26th. Dave's in Maryland. What's happening, Dave? Just disappointed, man. It's just you look at, I think you hit the nail on the head with the,

the Kirkering inning was where, you know, just give up two runs, give up three. I realize it's a tough situation, but that's your job. That's why you're there. and just to let the inning explode like it did and then just to have the glazed over deer and headlights look when it's happening it's just that's where this team is right now

and then just stupid stuff like there was an bat where the bat where Castiano's broke his bat I mean it just not even like Was that the bat? Was that the bat when he swung at a two o pitch completely out of the zone too? Yes and then he swung at

at, uh, he swung at ball four twice in a row. Yeah, broke his, I thought he broke his bat twice, Dave. I thought he broke his bat twice. I think he did. And then, you know, I don't know. It just, even like if you watch when Bader crosses the plate when he hits the home run, it's like, I don't even know if he was happy for him. He was just like, give a little high five and, you know, like, he's, I think he feels like

that guy's taking my playing time with that, with that hit. Uh, I don't know. I just, there's. just so much about that loss that, you know, the Duran thing is the Duran thing, you know, and I think that fixes itself eventually, you know, and I'm not worried about that, but the Kirkering thing really, really concerns me. And, you know, the fact that Trey, I mean, Trey is back to swinging, when he's swinging now, like, he has that, like, he's swinging a rhythmic gymnastics ribbon with that little twirl that he has on the end when he misses. It's just

like he's back in a funk and chwerver has been just god awful the last five games and uh you know it's just you need your big guys to show up in games like this and they just they just aren't and that's that's disappointing with this group right now and you just hope that's not what you're going to see they're just not showing up when the bright lights are from so yeah i got appreciate the phone call dave and and i think that's right i think that's the the frustration of the last couple nights is that they sort of all have that that deer and headlights look tray swarber's looked brutal Bryce early tonight had and then some of the at bats late not great JT struck out four times tonight I mean would they strike out 13 times tonight

you know like Bader I think has some stones and that was evidence and I think I think Bryce has stones but oh my goodness it's it's it's excursion curring deer in headlights you hope that that durand doesn't have deer and headlights because guess what they're going to need them but you know it tonight was a a gut check game tomorrow is just salvage a series and get out of there but even that who knows i mean seriously who knows we might be exiting new york with a a four game lead in the division he entered into it with a seven game lead. Ah, it's just awful.

All right. On the other side, more of your phone calls, plus one of the biggest differences in this series and the player of the game. All that's coming next on the final out on Sports Radio 94 WIPA. Thank you. Thank you.

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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome back. It is the final out. Sports Radio 94 WIP. Jack Fritz hanging out with you.

Reacting to a brutal night up in Queens. As the Phil's now lost nine straight, nine straight against the New York Mets. and what has been a just, oh, man. So in 22 and 23, I kind of had a similar feeling when they went up against the Braves down in Truest. And in the playoffs, the Phillies obviously did their thing and flipped the switch and took it to the Braves and it was great. I just, I don't know, this feels so much worse.

Maybe it's overreactionary, but, I just, and maybe it's because it's New York, maybe because what happened in the postseason last year. Like, I, the Mets have felt dead for a majority of this season and following a lot of their people. Now, I'm sure some of them are over the top. But like, in following Mets land and following them from afar, watching some of their games,

like they just look like a dead team walking. They don't have OMG. They don't have grimace. They don't have the nonsense that they had last year. They don't have, you know, Jose Iglesias and J.D. Martinez and stuff like that. And they look like a dead team walking. But, man, when they play this team, they just lock in and play with a different kind of emotion and look like a great team. And the Phillies just look inferior.

They look inferior to this Mets team. And they, I think it's similar talent levels on both sides. but they just they don't look ready to meet the moment they look scared and it always looks like it's an uphill climb like it just always looks like they are are swimming upstream to grind and scratch and claw across a run because the eventual Mets wave Mets avalanche is coming and that sucks I mean, that really, really sucks. But it's just where they're at. The player of the game, brought you by South Jersey Gas Conserve,

helping customers and the community save energy and money, visit South. JerseyGas.com slash conserve. I guess I'll give it to Pete Alonzo. And of all the things that annoy me about the Mets, doing a celebration every time you reach first base is also beyond annoying. Like, they're actually an embarrassment to baseball, the New York Mets franchise. and this current crop of New York Mets players are actually embarrassing to the game of baseball.

And the baseball gods should not reward them, but seems like they are, especially against the Phillies. Reacting with that stupid roadrunner, whatever thing on first base after a single, I can tolerate it with a double. a single really that's what we're doing now you know it's all orchestrated by pita lanzo who is an absolute dork i just they don't deserve to be rewarded for their actions on a baseball field bill is in east hampton what's happening though hey jack how you do my friend not well how are you bill i'm not doing well it was it was a sad game but um i'm going to be honest even if we come out of this

And I'm not, I can't say I'm that excited about tomorrow because I mean, well, I mean, it's the most critical game of the regular season. We don't have Wheeler because he's hurt. We don't have Sanchez. We don't have Ranger. We don't even have Lazzardo. The biggest game of the regular. We're going into it with Taiwan Walker. And I don't know how anybody feels about that, but I know he, he's shown signs of brilliance.

He's also shown some weakness. but we're going into the biggest game of the critic this game was huge and we're going into it with an intangible I mean we need the bats to wake up tomorrow and light it up I know we we got some of that tonight Bryce looked great Bryce played by example he didn't park anything but he really led by example and I love I love Harrison Tomer that was great yeah I mean the Bader moment felt like a a moment And, and, like, when they didn't score right after it, it was, it was sort of, you were waiting for the Mets to come back and score. And it was strange.

Debrassian's two big assets that you brought in. Thader and D'Rona. Vader came through, and D'Urvine didn't. I was kind of shocked by that, but, you know, the four straight hits. But I'm not that worried. Even if we lose tomorrow, we're still up four. we got a four games set against them they have to come to the bank they have to come to our house so i'm not that worried about it but it it certainly is disturbing the loss tonight i think everybody

kind of feels that yeah and i i i they have four games set here that's good i again they had a seven game lead heading into this series to leave it with a four-game lead, giving the Mets some momentum, heading into September, that four-game series all of a sudden becomes, like, really, really crucial rather than an ability to extend a division lead course. Like, no one's sitting here on August 26th saying, season's over, what a waste of time, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't feel that way. It's just incredibly annoying.

going up against that team in city field where it just feels like a continuation of last year's playoff series. That's the frustrating part about tonight. The pitch count is brought to you by the Plummers Union Local 690, protecting the health of the nation. Visit plumbers 690.org. 87 pitches for Hazers Salazar tonight. And I'll say this. I thought for a pretty marquee start for him, and a highly emotional start and one where he didn't exactly get a lot of help behind the plate. I thought he showed some stones tonight. And I thought he threw a lot of pitches in the first inning that kind of threw off his game. I know he only went into the fifth inning, but there was a lot of good, good from him.

There was moments where, I think, earlier in the season, maybe he unravels a little bit, but he didn't tonight. He stayed locked in, and I'm sure that there are people out there saying he's pitching well, leave him in there, and why is Thompson pulling him for Orion? And sure, when it doesn't work out, that's going to be brought into question. At the same time, had Lazzardo stayed out there and then got him lit up, people would have said, well, why did Thompson leave him in there? I was fine with pulling him.

Orion should have done a better job in that situation. There was no need for it to blow up the way that it is. Did that's something that Orion Kirkring has to work on. But overall, I thought it was a pretty positive outing from Hazel's Lazzarder tonight. And one that I thought that he felt ready for a big game. He was into it. And again, for the most part, his teammates followed. but they came up on the short end of the stick.

On the other side, we'll have a look ahead to tomorrow, run your phone calls before handing things off to Tom Kelly here on Sports Radio 94 WIP. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The stretch. and the pitch swung on hit high in the air left field towards the corner Nimmo going back looking up and that is gone Harrison Bader has tied the game here in the eighth inning it's five five as Bader with his second home run as a

Philly does in his old team a towering home run down the line and left ah felt like a moment it really did and it was Oh, one of the most emotional, biggest emotional outbursts I've had this season. I felt like a playoff game. Every, like a couple times a year I treat a regular season game like a playoff game in this series has certainly done that. Even though you have to remember that it's not, it's August 26th. Fight the urge to feel like this out. It's going to go in October.

Actually, again, like I said earlier, I do give them credit from the standpoint of I thought they fought back. I thought they showed emotion. I thought they tried hard. I don't think they rolled over and died. Some guys didn't have it. And Bader really stepped up and hit a big home run. And I just continue to believe that when they get in the postseason, he's going to have a couple big hits.

Like he just has that big game feel to him. He's like a 250-15 home run guy. But I don't know. There's something about him in the postseason. I just kind of trust him. He did make up for a pretty brutal play. play in the field where he overthrew everyone instead of just like hitting a cut keeping the double play in order and letting it letting that inning kind of snowball even more but did make up for it there

and and that kind of they had them and and they got hellsley again and then he walked stod and stock got on third and then and then trey didn't get the job done which in big like somehow is somehow as postseason batting average is like 3013 it really doesn't it really doesn't feel that way let's go back to the phones uh jeremy's in cherry hill what's happening jeremy hey what's up first off i want to say with uh go bird okay go birds um yeah it was a upset night tonight but uh we'll come back i hope so they'll be they'll be they'll be be okay they'll be okay yeah i mean a lot of people i've seen are coming uh tie out tomorrow but

he's battled yeah she's had his uh down but he's also battle through this season so i'd facing him but um we'll see how tomorrow goes also uh no disrespect to you uh jack but um some of the hosts already called this division for us and I think that was abruptly and we all know how karma goes and we saw how

that happened tonight. Yeah, listen to Jeremy and I appreciate the phone call. I mean, Joe Giulio, a very cute job by him the other day saying the division's over before the Mets series. Really appreciate that. Really appreciate throwing that out there heading into the heading into this so um you know appreciate that one as always appreciate that

one as always so if this thing starts going awry there is one person to blame and that is that is a hundred percent joe jillio ben's in los angeles what's happening ben uh jack i don't i didn't think that it was possible to be more frustrated with the Phillies than i was last night uh but here we are. This was a perfect opportunity to, you know, tonight, especially after fighting back, showing that, you know, that they're different, that things have changed, and they just continue to refuse to make adjustments or have any situational awareness. I mean, they're going up in the top of the knife and just trying to wail, and then you see

the mess come up, and they're sending singles, and they get it done. and it's just, it's incredibly frustrating to watch. Yeah, well, and that's the thing. You know, there was a lot of the things that haunted them in the past that showed up tonight. Tons of strikeouts, top of the order not doing their job, bullpen, and some of the guys that you need to have out there, not looking right for the moment. I mean, three of the big keys and just the overall feeling of having to scratch and claw to try to beat a Mets team that's been dead for the entire season.

season. I just, it's, it sucks. Yeah, and one of the biggest things that continues to bug me, and you touched on this with Castiano's, is the, the chasing has not gotten better. I don't, the Mets worked so many three ball counts tonight, and it really worked to their advantage because they were able to get pitch counts up, put stress on pitchers, see more pitches that benefit them. And the Phillies just go up there and swing, and they call it being aggressive. And it's just, it keeps happening and it's not working i would just like to see maybe just try something else yeah well and i breached the phone call ben and like you know the the tyler rogers inning you got shore and harper up there two of the guys that you trust to to work account and

they go down in two pitches two pitches we're going to talk about deflating that's deflating now tomorrow the mound taiwan walker Taiwan against his old team in New York Mets. The Phillies have their work cut out for them. Nolan McLean's awesome. He's rookie, two starts already, pitching to the seventh his last time out. I think he struck out like seven and eight

in each of his first two outings. So, you know, we've seen some of the pitchers burst on the scene like Mizorowski and cool off a little bit. McLean, of course, first time through the league with pretty powerful stuff. It's going to be a tough one. So it's a pretty marquee start for him.

you know and this is a kid coming up postseason like atmosphere and and we'll see if he's ready to meet the moment also curiously the Phillies are ready to meet the moment i meant to talk about this earlier but one of the biggest differences in the series the metts are 16 for 29 with runners the scoring position while the Phillies are three for 19 that is brutal brutal we'll see if the luck changes tomorrow and they can salvage a series up in new york taiwan walker versus donal mclean i will get you set with leading off leading into the game and of course have you after the game as well tk is next he'll take you through the rest of the night of a frustrating night here on sports radio 94 w i think what's up guys i'm jordan robinson host of the podcast

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