3 Phillies most to blame for giving the Braves NL East life at worst time

The Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves are likely going to find themselves in quite the entertaining battle for the NL East this season. These two teams both have potential to win the World Series. But only one of them can come out on top in the division and only one can come out of the National League with the pennant.

The Phillies have held firm control over the division for most of the season, and they're still in control of it now, but after dropping two straight games to the Braves, they've given Atlanta life at the worst possible time. Right before the All-Star break and right before the trade deadline.

There's plenty of blame to go around the Phillies too.

3. Johan Rojas should take some of the blame for the Phillies losses

The Phillies have been in the market for an outfielder for the entire season with them drawing connections to names like Luis Robert and Cody Bellinger recently. While nothing has come of this, the Phillies have been left with a bit of a lackluster outfield, with the 23-year-old Johan Rojas at the forefront of their struggling outfield.

Rojas has been horrible at the plate this season. The young Phillies outfielder is slashing .232/.267/.290 on the season, good for an OPS+ near 50. According to Baseball Savant, he's worth -7 batting run value and he's in the bottom 10 percent in key stats like xSLG, average exit velocity and barrel percentage.

Despite his offensive woes, he's been good defensively, which is the key reason that he's remained in the lineup. He's one of the faster players in all of baseball, recoridng sprint speeds north of 30 MPH. His fielding run value is in the 86th percentile of the league thanks to his 4 OAA and his elite arm strength.

But the Phillies need to make a move for a bat to take his spot until Rojas can get going. It's hard to win a World Series with an offensive liability in the lineup. But, Rojas is still just 23 and he has a ton of potential. He will be fine in the long run, but he can take some of the blame for why Philadelphia hasn't run away with the division.

2. Ranger Suarez is to blame following three consecutive uncharacteristic starts

Ranger Suarez began the season pitching like one of the best pitchers in the entire league. He got off to a 10-1 start holding a 1.75 ERA. But, over his last three starts, Suarez has been bad. Not just saying that he's struggled, but he's been downright bad for the Phillies.

In those three starts, Suarez is 0-2 with a no decision. He's thrown 15.2 innings in those three starts, allowing 24 hits and 15 runs, with 13 of those runs being earned. He's seen his ERA rise from 1.75 to 2.58 in that span.

To put it into perspective, Suarez allowed just 21 runs in his first 90+ innings of the season. That's almost as many runs as he's allowed in the last two weeks. Rob Thomson needs his former Cy Young candidate to start pitching like his former self or else the Phillies are going to continue to lose games that they should have been winning.

With the Phillies missing JT Realmuto, Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber on the injured list right now, they need their dominant pitching staff to be dominant. Suarez hasn't been that recently and it's shown. There's no reason to be concerned about him just yet, but it's definitely something to keep an eye on.

1. Dave Dombrowski and the front office are to blame for not making trade upgrades yet

The Phillies have plenty of holes in their talented roster that need tended to. Their rotation and lineup as a whole have been so talented and performing so well that these holes are hard to find, but they're still there.

Notably, the holes in center field, even in right field, the starting rotation and in the backend of the bullpen are where the Phillies need to address.

Their first four starters have been so good for their pitching staff this year that many haven't noticed how much of a let down the fifth spot has been. While this is usually to be expected from the fifth starter, it's still a place the Phillies could look to acquire a cheap, rental arm to fill that void. They haven't.

Philadelphia could also use another outfielder to replace the struggling Johan Rojas. They haven't done that either. Rojas has been incredible defensively, but his offense has been so bad that it almost doesn't matter.

With all the injuries that Philadelphia has been through this season, they need to add all the talent they can in order to have the quality depth that it takes to win the World Series. This falls back on the front office for not being aggressive just yet. They still have time to go after these trade pieces, but they've found themselves losing a few games that they should have won because of these holes.