A final weak night from the lineup and bullpen at the end of a nightmare for the Phillies

NEW YORK — The two main reasons the Phillies fell behind in the NLDS were that they lost the NLDS and went home earlier than either of them expected.

The offense didn't show up, and the reliever the Phillies relied on most throughout the regular season was completely ineffective.

Just like in Game 1, the Phillies took a one-run lead but failed to build on it. They kept the Mets in it with just one out when they had runners on second and third with one out in the top of the fourth and stranded two baserunners with one out in the sixth.

All night, all series long, the Phillies just needed breathing room. They spent less than half the innings of the NLDS leading by multiple runs.

Despite their slim advantage in the middle innings Wednesday night, the Phillies never looked in control of Game 4. The Mets had plenty of chances against Ranger Suarez in the first three innings but went 2-10 with runners in scoring position. In the bottom of the sixth, they loaded the bases for the third time and cleared them on Francisco Lindor's grand slam off Carlos Estevez.

The three runs in the 4-1 loss were charged to Jeff Hoffman, who carried a 1.65 ERA into the final weekend of the regular season before allowing 10 runs over his final 2⅓ innings. He lost games 1 and 4.

Estevez did what the Phillies accomplished in the regular season with a 2.57 ERA but he also ran out of gas late and struggled to miss bats. Estevez threw Lindo's game-changing slam on the fourth pitch.

All told, the Phillies' bullpen allowed 17 runs in 12⅔ innings in the series.

As poorly executed as it was, the crime was worse. The Phillies scored two runs before the sixth inning in the NLDS — two runs in 20 innings. One was Kyle Schwarber's leadoff homer in Game 1. The other scored on an error by Mets third baseman Mark Vientos in the fourth inning of Game 4.

The Phillies sent the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning with back-to-back walks against closer Edwin Diaz but Cody Clemens struck out, Brandon Marsh flew out and Schwarber went down swinging to end the game and the season.

There are no specific hitters to single out as the Phils have come up short throughout the lineup. JT Realmuto was hitless in the NLDS. Alec Boehm was benched in Game 2 and went 1-for-13 with no RBI. Trea Turner singled three times and walked twice but had no extra-base hits. The Phillies' 6-for-9 hitters were a combined 4-for-52.

Now, they go home for the winter. This year was supposed to be different. The Phillies crashed the playoff party and stormed through it in 2022 then were even better in 2023, routing teams through their first eight playoff games until a drastic overhaul in the NLCS, largely in the form of their own overaggressiveness.

The 95-win team this season was the best, deepest and most talented roster of the three. It goes back to 2011 when the Phillies assembled the best collection of talent in that five-year run but were swept and upset in the NLDS by the Cardinals.

The Phillies looked like the best team in baseball throughout the first half, going 62-34 and sending a franchise-record eight players to the All-Star Game. But what they did in the second half, playing at a .500 level, proved more indicative of the team they had become.

Jack Wheeler had another Cy Young-caliber season. He, Aaron Nola and Christopher Sanchez each started. Harper, Schwarber and Nick Castellanos each played 145 games. Players' primes don't last forever and it's another year wasted.

Many of their players will be Phillies in 2025, but this particular cast of characters seems to have run its course.