4 Phillies under the most pressure ahead of NLDS elimination game

The Philadelphia Phillies spent much of the 2024 regular season playing like the best team in baseball, and their 95-67 record shows just that. Their record was good enough to help them earn a first-round bye and the No. 2 seed in the NL.

Despite their successful regular season, the Phillies trail the No. 6-seeded New York Mets 2-1 in the NLDS - a best-of-five series. New York is just one win away from an unlikely trip to the NLCS and pulling off a major upset over Philadelphia.

The entire Phillies roster cannot let that happen. Losing to their NL East rivals in the NLDS after the way the 2023 postseason ended and the way they played for most of the 2024 regular season would be a tough pill to swallow. These four individuals are under the most pressure to perform in an attempt to keep their season alive.

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4) J.T. Realmuto has been invisible in the NLDS thus far

J.T. Realmuto might not be the best catcher in baseball anymore, but even in a down year, was solid, especially for a catcher. He slashed .266/.322/.429 with 14 home runs and 47 RBI despite being limited to just 99 games due to injury, and is still as good as anyone at limiting the running game.

Realmuto doesn't have as much pressure as he has in recent years with the team hitting him sixth or seventh in the order, but he's expected to be a whole lot better than he has been. So far in this series, he has gone hitless in nine at-bats. He's been hit by two pitches and has walked once, but Realmuto being hitless is a real and frightening statistic.

The bottom of Philadelphia's order has left a lot to be desired in this series, and Realmuto has been in the center of that. This team is supposed to have as deep of a lineup as any, but that has not been the case thus far in October in large part because Realmuto has failed to do much of anything.

The Phillies went 11-2 in games in which he hit a home run during the regular season. They went 10-0 in games in which he drove in at least two runs, and 25-4 in games that saw him drive in one run. He had a run batted in during the second game of this series, Philadelphia's lone win this series.

Nobody wants to go hitless in an entire postseason series, especially when your team loses. It's imperative that Realmuto gets something going in Game 4. When he's producing, they're really tough to beat. His lack of production has helped the Mets immensely.

3) Alec Bohm needs to snap out of his slump quickly

Alec Bohm had the best regular season of his career thus far, slashing .280/.332/.448 with 15 home runs and 97 RBI. He was an All-Star and a key run producer in this Phillies lineup. That was not the case down the stretch of the regular season and has not been the case in October either, so far. Things got so bad to the point where he was benched in Game 2 of this series.

Bohm ended the regular season in a 2-for-27 slump, and has just one hit in his first 10 postseason at-bats. To make matters worse, Bohm was thrown out trying to extend a single into a double in his lone postseason hit.

Unfortunately, Bohm struggling in October has become all too familiar of a sight for Phillies fans. He has slashed .219/.297/.342 with two home runs and 14 RBI in 33 games and 128 at-bats in the postseason overall, nowhere near his regular season production.

Based on how he's been playing down the stretch and in October of this season and during his entire postseason career, Bohm has a lot to prove in Game 4.

2) Rob Thomson has to push the right buttons for the Phillies to win

An NLDS loss for the Phillies could easily lead to major changes being made in the offseason. The easiest move for the Phillies to make would be making manager Rob Thomson a scapegoat. It's up to Thomson pushing the right buttons to avoid having the organization even thinking about changes.

Thomson made the somewhat controversial decision to start Ranger Suarez in Game 4 of the series instead of Zack Wheeler, arguably the greatest postseason pitcher in MLB history. Sure, Wheeler would've been on three days' rest, but Suarez struggled mightily down the stretch. It could work, but it could also easily backfire.

Thomson also made the decision to start left-handed hitters such as Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh against left-handed starter Jose Quintana, benching players like Johan Rojas and Edmundo Sosa who have a combined eight hits in 18 at-bats against New York's veteran. He refused to do that in Game 3, and the Phillies scored just two runs. Will this decision end up working out in his favor?

Virtually everyone Thomson has turned to out of the bullpen has failed to come through. A lot of that falls on the relievers for not executing, obviously, but Thomson can be blamed for certain decisions that he's made.

Being a manager can be a bit of a thankless job at times, and Philadelphia's failures do not fall squarely on Thomson's shoulders, but it's hard to assume that Thomson isn't feeling any pressure with their season on the line having made some interesting decisions.

1) The Phillies need Bryce Harper to come through in big moments

For much of the 2024 campaign, Bryce Harper played like an MVP candidate, and his statistics back that up. He slashed .285/.373/.525 with 30 home runs and 87 RBI during the regular season while also playing elite defense at a brand new position.

Harper has had a solid series thus far, which cannot be said about players like Bohm and Realmuto. He has three hits in nine at-bats and has also drawn four walks. He hit the huge two-run homer in Game 2 of the series that brought the team back into the game. His performance in Game 3, though, was telling.

Harper did drive in a run with an eighth-inning single, but the Mets were ahead by six runs at the time. With the game in the balance, Harper did not come through. He struck out on three pitches in a sixth-inning plate appearance with Sean Manaea on the ropes. Thomson went as far as to say he felt Harper was trying to do too much.

Harper, the best player on the team, simply has to come through in big spots. If the Phillies want to get past the Mets and make a deep run, they're going to need Harper to come through most of the time, whether that's fair or not. The lofty expectations mean he's under an immense amount of pressure.