On a long and miserable Saturday at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies got the full-scale experience of life in rebuild mode — both the good and the bad.
The bad would be the Phillies getting swept by the Miami Marlins in a doubleheader, dropping Game 1, 7-6, and Game 2, 5-2. The back-to-back defeats have built the Phillies’ loss total to 99, pushing them to the brink of franchise infamy — 100.
No Phillies club has accomplished such a dubious feat since 1961, when it went 47-107.
“Everybody makes a big deal out of that and I get it,” Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. “I don’t want to lose 100 games, I don’t want to lose 99 or 90.”
But as a cold, windy and dreary day materialized, the Phillies saw the good amid the rubble of 99 losses.
With the Phillies losing Game 1 and the Reds snapping a 13-game plummet thanks to a win over the Pirates, Andy MacPhail and company locked up next season’s No. 1 draft pick in a class stocked with elite arms.
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Even a bulldog competitor such as Mackanin acknowledged it.
“We’re trying to win every game, nobody wants to lose 100 games, nobody wants to lose 90 games,” Mackanin reiterated. “Ninety-nine or 100 is just as bad, but we’ve heard about [the No. 1 pick] for a couple of weeks now and we’re very aware of it. So, that’s one positive that comes out of it that we’re guaranteed getting a guy … so it’s been on our minds.”
And that’s what made Saturday so ironic yet fascinating for the Phillies. On the eve of Game 162 with 100 losses just one defeat from reality, the organization’s remake moved forward — in the pecking order of the draft and on the field.
Despite losses No. 98 and 99, the Phillies saw another positive in the return of Maikel Franco. The team’s rookie and franchise third baseman made his first start since fracturing his left wrist on Aug. 11, and went 2 for 4 with a solo home run to straightaway center field, as well as an RBI single to right.
Looks like the wrist feels pretty good, huh?
“Oh yeah,” Franco said with a big smile. “Just coming into today, getting ready for everything, right now my wrist is really good — 100 percent. I just want to go out there and try to have a good game and help my team win.”
Some questioned why the Phillies would have such a delicate piece to their future return for three measly, unimportant games. Mackanin explained pregame.
"Why not play him?” he said. “I think he's going to be an outstanding middle-of-the-lineup third baseman for us, but he's not yet a star and he's getting paid and I'm going to play him because he's healthy.
“He's not an established major leaguer. He's on his way to becoming one but he's not yet. Every chance you get to play you can learn something and improve, and he needs to do that.”
In Game 1, after Ken Giles blew just his second save since taking over for Jonathan Papelbon as Phillies closer, Franco walked to the plate as a pinch-hitter with the game’s tying run at second. He struck out swinging, but emphatically affirmed Mackanin’s message in Game 2.
“I told him, ‘I wished he would of hit that home run in the first game,’” Mackanin said with a laugh. “He said he needed one more at-bat.”
Most importantly, Franco came away pain-free after swinging and making contact in the chilly air.
“I worried about it a little bit,” Franco said, “but I know when I swing hard and nothing bothered me, I knew it felt good.”
And, oddly, the Phillies should feel pretty good. Late Saturday night, they left Citizens Bank Park losers of 99 games with one to go.
Yet, maybe down the line, they’ll remember the day for different reasons.
“The whole idea is to get into the playoffs and win a World Series, and if you don’t accomplish that, you haven’t achieved your goal,” Mackanin said. “It doesn’t matter how many games you lose. It doesn’t look good, but we want to win the World Series and that’s the goal. Any team that doesn’t win it hasn’t reached their goal — that’s the way I look at it.”