Philadelphia Phillies: Tempers flare on a rough night in New York

Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper made a notable statistic, but not for what he did on the field. At the same time, his veteran teammate expressed frustration with his team after a 5-1 loss Monday night.

Sometimes, it is hard to differentiate a good loss from a bad loss. If you get walked-off on, was it a bad loss? If you were strong on the pitching end but poor offensively, was it a bad loss? The Phillies on Monday night had a bad loss.

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This is now their fourth loss in a span of five games during a seven-game road trip, but that’s not what made this loss bad.

What made it a bad loss were the events that led to the loss: a poorly-called strike zone, an ejection of the 330-million dollar man, and the aired grievances of the man tasked with repeatedly throwing the ball to the catcher’s mitt.

In the fourth inning, Bryce Harper was displeased with one of the strike calls of home-plate umpire Mark Carlson. The sequence of pitches in question was pointed out by MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo:

Harper’s frustration with pitch four became too much to contain when teammate Cesar Hernandez received an also questionable high-strike call. From the dugout, Harper aired his grievance and he was promptly tossed.

Here is what the ejection looked like:

So with more than half a game to play, down by one, the team’s most important hitter was now done for the evening.

This ejection was notable as Sarah Langs pointed out on her Twitter:

This led to the criticism of Monday’s starter Jake Arrietta, who shared his thoughts on the ejection and the support from his team, and it was transcribed by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Scott Lauber:

Yes, considering everything that resulted from this game, this was a bad loss for the Phillies.

Does this mean that perhaps all this talent in one place really is a bad thing? Or is this just the resulting frustration from a bad loss during a rough stretch on a long road trip and everyone is starting to get at each other’s throats?

Speculation is fun in just the first month of the season, but it also gives clear and early signs of how dangerous the road ahead is for Philadelphia in 2019.