As Phillies end season with win over Braves to finish 80-82, Rhys Hoskins says ‘we will be better’ in 2019

Before the first pitch of the last game, before the Eagles went to overtime and stole the attention of even those who chose to spend their Sunday at the ballpark instead of in front of their televisions, Rhys Hoskins took the field and grabbed a microphone.

What followed amounted to an epilogue of a Phillies season that isn't easily digested.

"Obviously we're a little disappointed with the way that the season has ended," Hoskins said, as folks were still filing into their seats. "I'd like to promise you that we will learn from it, we will get better from it, and we will be better and ready when 2019 comes around."

Hold him to it, Phillies fans.

For the record, the Phillies won Game 162, 3-1 over the division-champion Atlanta Braves, and finished with an 80-82 mark, their sixth consecutive losing season but a 14-game improvement over last year. (The Braves, it should be noted, improved by 18 games.) Unconventional until the bitter end, manager Gabe Kapler made full use of the expanded September roster. He deployed eight pitchers, including spot-starting prospect Ranger Suarez, and 12 position players.

How many of them will be back in 2019 is anybody's guess. The Phillies are about to embark on the most fascinating offseason in recent franchise history, and the possible changes are endless. Over the next few days, you will hear from general manager Matt Klentak, team president Andy MacPhail and, with any luck, billionaire owner John Middleton. Beginning this week, the spotlight shifts to them.

But Game 162 represented one last reminder that the Phillies, as constituted, weren't ready for prime time. On Aug. 7, they were 15 games over .500 and held a 1 ½-game lead over the Braves in the National League East. From there, they went 16-33 and finished in third place, 10 games behind the Braves.

It wasn't any one thing, Kapler and Klentak keep saying, that caused the collapse. If anything, they believe the experience of going through a playoff race will steel the youngest Phillies for future runs. And Klentak is certain to make offseason additions designed to improve the roster.

But it will be incumbent upon the returning players — ace Aaron Nola, Hoskins, infielder Scott Kingery, reliever Seranthony Dominguez, and whomever else the club decides to bring back — to learn from this season and get better, just as Hoskins promised.

"I think just gaining that experience (in a playoff race), in a general sense, is very valuable," Hoskins said after the game. "We've been through it now and a lot of us hadn't. A lot of us know what to expect. A lot of us know what to do with our bodies to get ready for a game when we played 16 innings one night and the next night is a must-win game. Just little things like that that a lot of us had never experienced."

But some of these Phillies won't be around to see a winning season. Second baseman Cesar Hernandez, the club's longest-tenured player (who hit a leadoff homer Sunday), could be elsewhere next year. The Phillies could decide to move on from third baseman Maikel Franco. And what about center fielder Odubel Herrera, the best hitter in the league through mid-May and barely a replacement-level player after that?

"I don't really know," Herrera said through a team translator. "We all know how baseball is. It's a business. I can't really tell you. But I'm going into the offseason still thinking I'm a Phillie, and if something happens, it's nothing I can control."

Herrera can control his offseason preparation. And after being challenged by Kapler to report to spring training in better shape and compete with electric rookie Roman Quinn for the center-field job, Herrera claims he will be more diligent.

"My mind-set is that I am still the center fielder," Herrera said. "That's why I'm going to put in the work in the offseason. That's why I'm going to report to spring training ready to go in better shape mentally and physically.

"I think we had a good season — all the way up to August. Unfortunately, at the end, things didn't work out for us. But for the time that they did, it was fun. It was exciting. Everyone was together. That's what it's all about."

Actually, it's now about taking the next step forward. If the players who return in 2019 can't do that, even the good things that happened this season will be wasted.

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