PHILADELPHIA — The difference between an inning-ending strikeout and a multi-run mess for the Philadelphia Phillies came down to a scrape on the baseball.The top of the seventh seemingly ended when a foul tip was called, with Phillies reliever José Alvarado striding off the mound before further review revealed the ball had hit the dirt by home plate. Alvarado returned, and it took six more pitches for everything to unravel, culminating in Justin Crawford scrambling to the wall in center and the New York Mets’ Marcus Semien sprinting from the batters’ box to third. The Mets, who entered the seventh tied 3-3 with the Phillies, left the inning holding a three-run lead en route to a 6-4 win at Citizens Bank Park.“In spots like that, I’m always optimistic,” Alvarado said via interpreter Diego D’Aniello, “so I try to remain optimistic and control my mind and stay calm.”The optimism did not yield much in another difficult outing for Alvarado, whose batting average against rose to .313 and whose ERA rose to 6.58 in 26 innings this season. He has emerged as a question mark in the bullpen, one group with which the Phillies have cultivated real depth.Is this Phillies team built for a World Series run?Derek VanRiper and Matt GelbMuch of that depth, however, is right-handed. Seth Johnson pitched perhaps his best big-league inning on Thursday, striking out two in a 17-pitch inning. Max Lazar was excellent on back-to-back days earlier in the week. Bryse Wilson, who was added to the 40-man roster on Thursday, pitched two innings. They are all righties.The Phillies entered 2026 with what looked like a strong set of lefties on the Opening Day roster: Alvarado, Tanner Banks, Kyle Backhus and Tim Mayza. Not much has gone to plan for them since then. The group has a 1.64 WHIP (25th in MLB), 4.95 ERA (26th) and a .280 batting average against (30th). As for their individual seasons: