Philadelphia Phillies: 5 Factors That Cost the Franchise a World Series

The Philadelphia Phillies' entered the 2011 MLB season as the favorites to win it all.

Throughout the regular season, despite suffering a large amount of injuries, the team plugged away and won 102 games, setting a new franchise record.

Without resting players down the stretch, this team easily could have won 106-108 games. The Phillies were the best team in baseball, with the best rotation in baseball.

The talk of the city was about who they would play in the World Series, as the NLDS and NLCS were afterthoughts and sure things.

The Phillies' had locked up home-field advantage through every round of the playoffs. Teams would have to come through Philadelphia, where the Phillies' were 52-29 during the regular season.

Five games later, after a draining emotional 1-0 loss, the Philadelphia Phillies' were out of the playoffs in the first round.

How could everything go from a lock to make it the World Series, to a 102-win team knocked out in the first round of the playoffs?

Let's review five of the factors that cost the franchise another shot at the World Series...

72 and 1

72 and 1..

Do you know what those numbers represent?

Cliff Lee's career record is 72-1 when he is given a four-run lead or more, going into Game 2 of the NLDS this year. We all watched in amazement as the 4-0 lead went to 4-3, 4-4 and then 4-5.

The fifth run was scored after Shane Victorino misplayed a ball hit by Allen Craig to lead off the seventh inning. The misplayed ball, which wound up going for a triple, sealed the fate of the Phillies in Game 2.

While Cliff Lee didn't seem to be his usual dominant self, home plate umpire Jerry Meals seemed to be really squeezing Lee on the strike zone.

The Phillies' would go on to win Game 3, and if they had held the lead in Game 2, they would have won in a sweep.

Disappearing Bats

More than half of the batting order did not even show up for the series.

If the team even hit marginally well, they would have won this series.

Some of the stats for the series:

Carlos Ruiz .059 Avg (1 for 17) 3 Ks .111 OBP%

Placido Polanco .105 Avg (2 for 19) 3 Ks .105 OBP%

Ryan Howard .105 Avg (2 for 19) 6 Ks .143 OBP%

Raul Ibanez .200 Avg (3 for 15) 5 Ks .200 OBP%

Hunter Pence .211 Avg (4 for 19) 2 Ks .286 OBP%

With four of those five players being current or past All-Stars, those numbers are inexcusable.  

Pence and Ibanez hit some balls hard, but Ruiz, Howard and Polanco were just completely lost all series long. 

After Game 1 of the series, Howard, Ibanez and Pence only combined for four hits total in the next four games.

Running into the Hottest Team in Baseball

As the Phillies came into their last four games of the season, they were on an eight-game losing streak. They won their last game against the Mets, and went into a three-game series vs. the Atlanta Braves.

If the Phillies would have lost one of the three games, the Braves and Cardinals would have been forced to play a one-game playoff.

Even if the Cardinals won the game, it would have depleted their pitching staff, and given them no rest before the series vs. the Phillies' was due to start.

If the Cardinals lost, the Phillies would have faced the Arizona Diamondbacks which, on paper, were no match for the Phillies.

However, the Phillies stayed true to the game of baseball, and played their starters the entire series. They wound up sweeping the Braves in the series, and forced themselves to play the hottest team in baseball, the St Louis Cardinals.

It's a decision they will continue to regret, I am certain.

Injuries

Injuries crippled important parts of the team this season.

Placido Polanco, when healthy, is one of the best two-hole hitters in baseball. He moves runners up, fights off tough pitches, and is a fantastic all-around baseball player. The sports hernia he suffered this year took away all of his power and his ability to drive a ball.

In April, he had seven doubles in 103 at bats. The rest of the season in 366 additional at bats, he only had seven more doubles. He was not able to drive a ball unless it was in the dead middle of the plate. This all came to a head when Polanco batted .105 in the series vs. the Cardinals. 

Chase Utley played hurt the entire season. His fielding was fantastic all year long, but he was not able to work out his legs during the season. He definitely lost pop on his bat by not being able to plant his front foot and unload his hips during his at-bats this season.

One can only wonder if a healthy Chase Utley hits that ball in the ninth inning of Game 5 out of the park, instead of five feet short of being a tie game. Chase did show up and play very well in the NLDS, however, as he hit .438 in the series.

The main effect the injuries had on the team was the extensive time off everyone given after they clinched home-field advantage.

The team went on an eight-game losing streak, and they played all of their starters against Atlanta in order to get back into a rhythm. That, of course, made them face the Cardinals instead of the Diamondbacks in the playoffs.

Inability to Play Small Ball / Outmanaged

This Phillies team for so long was built on the long ball. They would just bash runs out on you. This team does not have that power anymore.

They need to improve at playing small ball, taking more walks, moving up runners, having productive outs. They failed miserably at that in the St Louis series. They will now go into the offseason needing to improve in being able to create runs.

I do not feel that Charlie Manuel did a bad job of managing the team in the St. Louis series. You could question some of his moves, but overall I think he did a good job.

Everything Tony La Russa did in the series (and in the Brewers series after) worked perfectly. Call it luck, guile, know how or skill, what he did worked perfectly game in and game out.