3 Philadelphia Phillies most to blame for squandering Game 1: No-show offense wastes Zack Wheeler gem

The Philadelphia Phillies underwent the famous five-day layoff between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the NLDS that every top-two seed must conquer. Their opponent was a familiar foe, the red-hot New York Mets, in what is probably the most anticipated matchup of this second round.

This Saturday has been proof positive that a week-long buy does not prevent your team from coming out of the gate strong — just ask the Cleveland Guardians, who walloped the Detroit Tigers 7-0 earlier in the afternoon. Philly, too, started about as well as possible, with Kyle Schwarber rocketing Kodai Senga's third pitch into the second deck out in right field.

That lit up the crowd and gave Zack Wheeler an early 1-0 lead against his former team — a lead Wheels would not relinquish for seven straight innings. The Phillies ace allowed one hit with nine K's through seven, including 30 swings and misses on 110 pitches. It was complete and utter dominance, and allowed Philadelphia to turn over that same 1-0 lead to the National League's best bullpen.

Reader: it did not end well.

The Phillies' vaunted bullpen imploded in a flash, coughing up five runs in the top of the eighth inning. Jeff Hoffman and Matt Strahm were All-Stars, but could not keep the gritty Mets from poking and prodding their way to five runs. Philadelphia burned through their top three bullpen arms in a single, disastrous inning.

Philadelphia did not score its second run until the bottom of the ninth on a fairly pointless Kody Clemens pinch-hit RBI. The final score was 6-2, with the Mets carrying over their momentum from an impressive Game 3 comeback against the Milwaukee Brewers.

We can blame the Phillies' entire offense as a collective unit, and we can obviously blame the bullpen, but here are a few individuals who earned special recognition for their inefficacy.

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3. Alec Bohm was one swing away from putting the Phillies back in the game

The heart of the Phillies' lineup just did not deliver when it mattered most. Kyle Schwarber was responsible for Philadelphia's only non-garbage time run and he went 2-for-5 on the afternoon, so he deserves some grace. Trea Turner went 0-for-4, however, and Alec Bohm was also 0-for-4 in far more critical spots.

It was Bohm who had the chance to swing the game back in Philadelphia's direction in the bottom of the eighth, but he failed to deliver. Bryce Harper rocked Phil Maton for a two-out double, followed by a blooper single from Nick Castellanos to move Harper to third base. Bohm was a swing away from trimming New York's lead to one — or at least "passing the baton," as Adam Wainwright was fond of saying on the broadcast.

Unfortunately, all Bohm could manage was a dinky groundball to shortstop for the fielder's choice and the final out, stranding two runs in what was unofficially Philadelphia's last chance to really cut into the Mets lead. The bottom of the ninth saw Ryne Stanek bungling the bottom of the Phils lineup, but it was too little too late. The Mets were too far ahead, and the Phillies had blown a golden opportunity.

Bohm was 2-for-28 to end the regular season after Philadelphia clinched its postseason berth. He has gone ice-cold at the worst possible time and, keeping with the tradition of recent Philly postseason flameouts, there is real concern as to whether or not this team can wake up before the final nail is driven into the coffin.

2. Jeff Hoffman wasted the best start of Zack Wheeler's postseason career

Jeff Hoffman is on the shortlist of the best setup pitchers in baseball. He earned his first All-Star berth this season and finished with a stellar 2.17 ERA across 66.1 innings. After such a dominant performance from Wheeler, there was every reason to feel good about handing the ball over to Hoffman in the top of the eighth.

That optimism was misplaced, however, as the Mets put together another magic late-inning run to put Philadelphia on the ropes. Hoffman coughed up three straight base-runners — a single, a walk, then an RBI single, leaving runners on second and third with nobody out. That was all Rob Thomson could stomach before he pulled the plug and dialed up Matt Strahm in the bullpen.

It's hard to overstate how disastrous this eighth inning was for Philadelphia. Thomson burned through arguably his three best relievers in an inning that resulted in five New York runs. Now the Phils are behind 0-1 in the series and their best late-inning arms are in the deficit, with Hoffman just setting the stage for an even more robust offensive barrage from New York after he left the game.

New York was clearly excited to finally get Wheeler out of the game. After getting shut for seven innings straight, the Mets were as spry and spunky as ever with Hoffman on the mound. He missed a few spots, let the Mets stack base-runners, and ended up losing the game. Hopefully this does not shake his confidence for future appearances, as Philly needs a solid Hoffman if they want to get back in this series.

1. Matt Strahm couldn't pitch Philadelphia out of a critical jam

Look, we can hardly blame Matt Strahm for inheriting two runners in scoring position with zero outs. Strahm, another All-Star reliever from the Phillies' stalwart bullpen, has been great at pitching out of jams all season. But he didn't just let Hoffman's leftover runs cross home; Strahm coughed up two earned runs of his own on two hits.

The 32-year-old, who finished the regular season with a 1.87 ERA through 62.2 innings, could only record one out — an RBI sac fly from Pete Alonso — before Thomson had to pull the plug again, turning it over to hard-throwing righty Orion Kerkering to close out that god-awful frame. Strahm gave up a single, a sac fly, and a single and let New York pile on. He could not stymie the Mets' momentum, which was his only job.

Stahm was pretty much never getting out of that inning unscathed, but he needed to limit base-runners and put a dent in New York's momentum. Instead, he did the opposite. Credit to the Mets for hammering two excellent pitchers, but Strahm was missing spots and appeared visibly flustered on the mound.

Philadelphia can't lose confidence in its bullpen after one bad night, but this is the sort of collapse that defines a season. New York still needs to win two more, but Philadelphia's job is to now win three of four against baseball's hottest team — and that is hard to accomplish. Stahm was punching uphill from the jump thanks to Hoffman, but the Phillies desperately needed him to stem the tide. Instead, the gash got wider and Philadelphia was dead by the ninth inning.