The emotions from Thursday night have had a few days. The shock, the anger, the disbelief, the bitter sadness... Maybe for most, the feelings are all numb now. Maybe most have come to grips with the realization that this era of the Phillies has been thrown away along with that baseball that Orion Kerkering sent sailing past J.T. Realmuto at the plate.

But for all, the reason why it got here was the same old story at its very core: The big bats disappeared again.

They flailed at pitches trying to crush the ball, they brought momentum to a halt with a pop-up they got too far under, a groundout they couldn't get around to, or just a straight-up swing and a miss when something was starting to brew. They just couldn't bring themselves to get on base and go from there.

Bryce Harper, Kyle Schw

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