The postseason heartache continues for Phillies' Bryce Harper

NEW YORK – One pitch ruins six months of success. It is the ferocity of 21st century baseball that rewards the prowess of fall over the superiority of summer.

Carlos Estévez crouched on the mound, put his hands on his knees and turned his head to watch over his left shoulder as Francisco Lindor fired his 2-1 fastball toward right-center field. When the ball landed in the Philadelphia bullpen and triggered a sixth-inning grand slam that wiped out the Phillies' 1-0 lead, the reliever dropped his hands and his head dropped.

“I knew right away,” Estévez said after Wednesday night’s 4-1 loss to the New York Mets ended the National League Division Series at four games and sent the Phillies home for the winter.

Sixteen years without a World Series title and counting. And in each of the last three seasons, Bryce Harper & Co. have been eliminated earlier and earlier.

“Every loss is kind of the same, man,” Harper said. “Any time you lose and don’t finish the job of a World Series, it’s the same thing – whether it’s the next round or the World Series round, it all feels pretty similar.”

Philadelphia reached Game 6 of the 2022 World Series before losing to Houston. With an offense led by Harper, Kyle Schwarber, JT Realmuto and Nick Castellanos and a rotation led by Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler, it appeared to be on the verge of success.

Trea Turner was added for 2023, and the Phillies took a 3-2 lead against Arizona in the NL Championship Series last year before losing Games 6 and 7 at home.

Then the Phillies started that season 46-20, opening a 10-game lead in the division, and finished the season 95-67, winning the NL East for the first time since 2011.

“You just feel like you’re failing,” Turner said. “We had a fun season. We had some good memories and so on. But if your goal is to win the World Series, and I think we've talked about that a lot, that's nothing more than some kind of failure. So I don't think it's because of that. “Lack of trying, lack of talent or people we have in the clubhouse, we just didn't get it done.”

There were signs of trouble as October began. The Phillies lost eight of their last 13 games during the regular season.

“I haven’t felt like we’ve been playing like ourselves the last few weeks,” Turner said.

Philadelphia hitters hit .186 against the Mets, including 6 for 31 with runners in scoring position. And the replacements had an 11.37 ERA, so 11 of 15 inherited players scored.

A third championship after 1980 and 2008 remains hopeless. The core could be held together. Estévez and fellow pitchers Jeff Hoffman and Spencer Turnbull are the only players eligible for free agency.

“I don’t like losing a series. I want to win a World Series, but anything can happen in a short series,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “But I don’t see any regression, no.”

Turner understood the frustration of Phillies fans who expected so much more.

“They’re taking this as hard as we are,” he said.