The Philadelphia Phillies famously underwent the five-day layoff between the end of the regular season and the start of the NLDS that must capture every top two seed. 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 one-week signing won’t stop your team from coming out strong – just ask the Cleveland Guardians, who defeated the Detroit Tigers 7-0 earlier in the afternoon. Philly also started about as well as it could, with Kyle Schwarber firing Kodai Senga’s third pitch to the second deck in right field.

That lit up the crowd and gave Zack Wheeler an early 1-0 lead against his former team – a lead Wheels wouldn’t relinquish for seven consecutive innings. The Phillies ace allowed one hit with nine Ks through seven, including 30 swings and misses on 110 pitches. It showed total dominance and allowed Philadelphia to parlay that same 1-0 lead into the National League’s best bullpen.

Reader: It didn’t 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 couldn’t stop the gritty Mets from clawing their way to five runs. Philadelphia burned their top three bullpen arms in a single, disastrous inning.

Philadelphia didn’t score its second run until the bottom of the ninth on a rather meaningless pinch-hit RBI by Kody Clemens. The final score was 6-2, with the Mets carrying 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 have received special recognition for their ineffectiveness.

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The heart of the Phillies’ lineup simply didn’t deliver when it mattered most. Kyle Schwarber was responsible for Philadelphia’s only non-garbage time trial and he went 2-for-5 on the afternoon, so he deserves some mercy. However, Trea Turner went 0-for-4, and Alec Bohm also went 0-for-4 in much more critical spots.

It was Bohm who had the opportunity to swing the game back Philadelphia’s way in the bottom of the eighth, but he failed to do so. Bryce Harper rocked Phil Maton for a two-out double, followed by a blooper single by Nick Castellanos that moved Harper to third base. Bohm was one step away from cutting New York’s lead to one — or at least “passing the baton,” as Adam Wainwright liked to say on air.

Unfortunately, all Bohm managed was a dinky groundball to the shortstop for the fielder’s choice and the final out, leaving two runs behind in what was unofficially Philadelphia’s last chance to really take the Mets lead. The bottom of the ninth saw Ryne Stanek mess with 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 went 2-for-28 to end the regular season after Philadelphia clinched the postseason berth. He’s gone ice cold at the worst possible time and, in keeping with the tradition of Philly’s recent postseason flames, there’s real concern about whether or not this team can wake up before the final nail is in the coffin beaten.

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

That optimism was misplaced, however, as the Mets put together another magical late-inning run to give Philadelphia trouble. Hoffman coughed up three baserunners in a row – a single, a walk and then an RBI single, leaving runners on second and third base with no one out. That was all Rob Thomson could take before pulling the plug and calling up Matt Strahm in the bullpen.

It’s hard to overstate how disastrous this eighth inning was for Philadelphia. Thomson burned perhaps his three best relievers in an inning that resulted in five New York runs. Now the Phils are down 0-1 in the series and their best late-inning players are on the back foot, with Hoffman just setting the stage for an even more robust offensive barrage from New York after hitting the had left the match.

New York was clearly excited to finally get Wheeler out of the game. After being shut down for seven straight innings, the Mets were as spry and feisty as ever with Hoffman on the mound. He missed a few spots, allowed the Mets to stack baserunners and ultimately lost the game. Hopefully this doesn’t hurt his confidence for future outings, as Philly needs a solid Hoffman if they want to get back in this series.

Look, we can hardly blame Matt Strahm for inheriting two runners in scoring position with no outs. Strahm, another All-Star reliever from the Phillies’ stalwart bullpen, has been great at pitching out of foul trouble all season. But he didn’t just let Hoffman’s remaining runs go home; Strahm himself coughed up two earned runs on two singles.

The 32-year-old, who finished the regular season with a 1.87 ERA in 62.2 innings, was only able to record one out – an RBI sacrifice fly by Pete Alonso – before Thomson had to pull the plug. againand hand it over to the hard right-wing Orion Kerkering to close that terrible frame. Strahm gave up a single, a fly-fly and a single to let New York pile on. He couldn’t hinder the Mets’ momentum, which was his only job.

Stahm almost never got out of that inning unscathed, but he had to limit the number of baserunners 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 missed spots and looked visibly nervous on the mound.

Philadelphia can’t lose faith in its bullpen after one bad night, but this is the kind of collapse that defines a season. New York still needs to win two, but Philadelphia’s job now is to win three of four against the best team in baseball — and that’s a tough feat to achieve. Thanks to Hoffman, Stahm hit uphill from the jump, but the Phillies desperately needed him to turn the tide. Instead, the gash widened and Philadelphia was dead in the ninth inning.