NEW YORK — It wasn’t supposed to end this way. Less than three months ago, the suggestion would have seemed like a set-up for a punchline. Carlos Estévez, crouched in front of the Citi Field mound, a wince in his face, cast an anxious glance over his shoulder as he watched Francisco Lindor’s sixth-inning grand slam disappear over the wall in right-center field, realizing that it The tide had irrevocably changed, and that the Phillies’ most promising season in years would quickly be over after just four games.

A loss as catastrophic as this doesn’t leave much room for granular details. It doesn’t matter how it happened, just that it happened. If you watched Game 4, you know what happened. You know it was pretty much the same as what had happened in each of the Phillies’ previous five postseason games. Their lineup failed to generate comfortable leads, and their bullpen failed to hold onto the few small leads. More relevant is the question of why these two things keep happening and how they can be solved. It’s a big question. It’s an important question. But it is neither the biggest nor the most important unknown.

» READ MORE: Francisco Lindor and the Mets reject the Phillies’ World Series dreams and push them out of the NLDS

No, the most important unknown in the aftermath of the Phillies’ 4-1 loss to the Mets in Game 4 of the National League Division Series came into focus a few innings before it was officially over. When Lindor reached second base for the force out to end the eighth inning, a sold-out crowd of 44,000 of the hungriest fans in the sports universe exploded. The roar that engulfed Citi Field quickly transitioned into the most rousing and unencumbered sing-along in Billy Joel history. piano man, the chorus swept the field as the 2024 Phillies wandered back out for what appeared to be their final three outs on defense.

Is this really happening? More importantly, is this something that is in danger of continuing to happen? Was this simply a matter of a more talented team and a more successful organization running into the inevitable team-on-fire of the postseason? Will it go down as a hiccup, a speed bump, a blemish on the record of an era that will ultimately yield the long-sought title? Or will it go down as something else? The logical next step for a team that has already reached its peak and its best chance for glory is a little further in the rearview mirror?

“It’s not a good feeling,” Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber said. “I feel like the group we had was just going to get better and better. First, you have to give credit where credit is due. They played phenomenal. There are no ifs or buts, they beat us. So credit to them. But that doesn’t take away from the feeling in the room. It hurts.”

One can only hope that there is nothing symbolic about the Mets being the team that sparked these questions. If you had tried to come up with a scenario in June and July that would inflict maximum pain on the Phillies and their fan base, it would have looked something like this. Schwarber swings into Edwin Díaz on strike three, a blue-and-orange crowd forming around second base, a giant apple rising from its black-clad hole in center field.

Three weeks before the Phillies acquired Estévez at the trade deadline in a move they thought would cement their position as NL title favorites, the Mets were 15 games out of first place, two games under .500, and beginning a path which seemed like a good bet. to end up with themselves as deadline salesmen. Pete Alonso, La Candelita, OMG, it all seemed so unserious it was almost enjoyable. The Mets would never stop Metsing.

Now? We witnessed what might have been the breakout of a future star in October, with Mets third baseman Mark Vientos owning this series in a way that none of the $20 million-plus Phillies superstars come close to could come from a copy. We’ve seen Lindor not only validate these MVP chants, but also raise the possibility that he could be the kind of player who can make his name a postseason legend. We have to consider a remarkable possibility: that these Mets really do have what it takes to win a World Series in a year that would be the Phillies’ best chance yet.

“I know we can do it,” catcher JT Realmuto said. “Obviously we haven’t done this in recent years, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a really good baseball club.”

The immediate aftermath of a loss like this is not the time to make definitive judgments. It’s too early to say that things need to change. It’s not too early to say that changes need to be considered. The trendline extends further back than Games 6 and 7 of last year’s NLCS loss to the Diamondbacks. The Phillies are now 2-5 in their last seven postseason games after going 14-4 in the 18 games before them.

Dave Dombrowski and Rob Thomson have to think long and hard about the composition of this line-up. Is this really the right mix of players around those who will have to continue to serve as the focal point? The bottom half of the order was virtually non-existent and dated well before the start of this series. Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott, Brandon Marsh, Johan Rojas – what exactly do the Phillies have in these players? Which ones have earned a permanent spot next to the Bryce Harpers and Schwarbers and Trea Turners? How can they swap those who haven’t?

This, of course, assumes Thomson himself is guaranteed to return for his third full season at the helm. He should be too. I’m pretty sure of that. You are not making that change at the moment. In an offseason where much else needs to change, the Phillies need what Thomson brings to the table from a human management perspective. The manager gave his critics a lot of room for the way he handled both his pitching staff and his lineup during this series. On the other hand, you can’t fight your way into a setup that doesn’t appeal.

The talent itself must be central. Schwarber and Harper form the basis of consistency and sensitivity in their approach. The rest of the lineup is maddeningly sensitive to non-competitive at-bats that tend to happen in unison. That includes Turner, who went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in Game 4 and is now 8-for-40 with five walks and nine strikeouts since the start of last season’s NLCS. During his first two years with the Phillies, he looked closer to the hitter he was early in his career than the one who hit .317 with a .370 on-base percentage and .900 OPS from 2019-21. Turner connected on a career-high 54% of the pitches he faced this season, nearly 10 percentage points more than at his peak.

“Personally, I think we’ll figure it out,” Turner said. “It doesn’t matter who’s on the mound. I know I personally feel that way and I think a lot of the guys in this room would feel that way too. The hitting is very hard. It’s easy to sit in the dugout and say don’t swing on this field, do this or do that. We say it all the time: It’s so easy from here in the dugout when someone else is batting. But when you’re in the box and there’s a guy on the mound throwing 95 miles an hour and there’s all kinds of things going on, it’s easy to say do this or do that, but when you’re in the box you have to decide how you are going to compete. I think we want to compete and we have a great lineup and great attacking players and honestly we will come out ahead.”

Turner, who signed a $300 million contract that runs through 2033, isn’t going anywhere. The most important decisions to be made concern roster spots with more options. The top two: Bohm, who is two years away from free agency and could potentially be traded for a player with a different skill set; and Marsh, whose bat offers value as a midfielder but can be upgraded on the left. The Phillies have some interesting directions they can take this season. But how willing are they to shake things up?

On Wednesday night, those were the questions swirling as OMG’s bassline echoed through Citi Field, October’s newest darlings lingering long after the finals, while the game’s former bright new things quietly crept toward the visitors’ clubhouse.