The Philadelphia Phillies appeared destined for the World Series. Owning the second-best record in the league behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and winning the National League East for the first time since 2011 while featuring a lineup of sluggers and a strong starting staff, their hopes and season were dashed to pieces in Queens.

The Phillies reached Game 6 of the 2022 World Series before losing to the Astros in Houston. They reached Game 7 of the ’23 NL Championship Series before losing to the Diamondbacks at home. On June 1 of this season the Phillies were 41-18, roughly on pace to 114 wins while the New York Mets were 24-34. Now, the Mets are on to the NLCS while the Phillies sit in heartbreak once again.

So what went wrong?

In a scene the Phillies saw a year ago, their offense collapsed in the postseason. They scored 12 runs in four games against the Mets in the NLDS. They also batted .186 with a .597 OPS while striking out 38 times against 16 walks. With runners in scoring position, they hit just .194 while the Mets hit .270, marking a stark contrast in the series.

Only three players for the Phillies had more than three hits in the series. Nick Castellanos went 7-for-17 in the series while Bryce Harper went 4-for-12. Both sluggers had a home run and three RBI along with three doubles between the two. The rest of the Phillies lineup struck out 30 times with Kyle Schwarber leading the way with six.

The Mets showed off the power that resulted in 207 home runs in the regular season, and the Phillies hit 198, by clubbing seven home runs in the Division Series while the Phillies hit just three. The Phillies had just one home run with runners on base while the Mets had three, with Francisco Lindor’s go-ahead grand slam in Game 4 serving as the pivotal blow.

The offseason will be spent lamenting the end result at the plate in Philadelphia. After all, they will still feature a potent lineup that didn’t exactly click together all year long but was good enough to be one of the better overall offenses in the regular season. While Harper again stepped up in the spotlight, the rest of the offense floundered and leaves some questions.

“Well, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” Castellanos said to MLB.com. “And we started fantastic. We were the best team in baseball in the first half. Everybody in baseball and all the fans are saying, ‘This is our year. This is our year. This is our year.’ I don’t know if expectations put on the pressure. I don’t know. I can speculate, but one thing I know is that we didn’t cross the finish line.”

The core of the lineup will likely stay intact with Harper, Castellanos, Schwarber, Trea Turner and J.T. Realmuto, but time is running out for that core.

“Obviously, it’s getting shorter, right?” Harper said about the window to win with this group. “I think Shwarbs has one more [year remaining on his contract]. I think JT has one more. But I think at the same time, you don’t pay [Zack Wheeler] and [Aaron Nola] [last offseason] if you don’t think you’re gonna be competitive for the next five years.”

There are still improvements to be made but it’s likely the Phillies can run back the same overall group and just hope for a different result at the end of the line.

However, the offense was the only culprit for the team in the NLDS as the bullpen took its licks along with the rest of the squad.

The bullpen had been a steady strength this year. In the first half, they posted a 3.79 ERA, the sixth-best in the NL but did take a slight step back in the second half with a 4.13 ERA. Unfortunately, the bullpen posted an 11.37 ERA in the series which was the fifth-highest ERA by any bullpen in any series in postseason history (minimum 10 innings), and the highest since Cleveland’s 11.70 bullpen ERA in the 2018 American League Division Series.

Every reliever gave up at least one run with 2024 All-Star Jeff Hoffman getting hit the hardest after he was responsible for six runs in 1 1/3 innings over three games, including three that came off the bat of Lindor in Game 4.

Carlos Estévez , acquired from the Angels in July to serve as the Phillies’ closer, entered the game to face Lindor after Hoffman loaded the bases with no outs in Game 4, clinging to a 1-0 lead.

“I came over for situations like that,” Estévez said.

He threw a 2-1 fastball over the plate to Francisco Lindor, who slugged his grand slam to right-center field to ultimately seal the Phillies fate.

An inability to stop the bleeding or thwart danger became the bane of the Phillies pen as starters labored to get to the fifth inning. All four starters in the series threw at least 80 pitches with Ranger Suarez being the only one to not complete five innings in Game 4. Zack Wheeler led the charge with seven shutout innings in his start where he threw 111 pitches in the Phillies only victory. Walks were a concern for the rotation but they kept them in check thanks to a solid amount of strikeouts. While not ideal, the rotation did enough to keep the Phillies in the ballgames and didn’t receive much support from the offense as the bullpen faltered.

So what’s next for the Phillies?

They will certainly look to bolster their bullpen again as Hoffman and Estévez are scheduled to become free agents. The team could also look across the diamond and see if there are improvements that can be made. They could look to adjust the outfield a bit for more consistency or try to sure up the rotation after Taijuan Walker’s rough season but the reality is that the Phillies may tweak some things with the existing group only and not go for any big swings in free agency.

Either way, another promising year ended in misery for Philadelphia who now must again try to solve the mystery of winning the World Series.