Hosting the All-Star Game is supposed to be a victory lap. Citizens Bank Park got the honor for the first time since 1996, the Phillies sent a loaded contingent, and the plan was for the home team's stars to put on a show in front of their own fans. Instead the week turned into a slow-motion pile-up, and the internet noticed.
Cristopher Sanchez started for the NL and immediately handed the AL the game, needing 34 pitches to get through a first inning that saw all three of the AL's eventual runs cross the plate. The AL went on to win 4-0, the first All-Star shutout since 2013 and only the 10th in the game's history. Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and Brandon Marsh combined to go 0-for-5 with 4 strikeouts, and that's before you get to Harper bowing out in the first round of the Home Run Derby and Schwarber losing in the derby final to Jordan Walker.
Barstool Baseball put a number on just how bad the week was for Philly's All-Stars.
That's the framing StoolBaseball ran with, and it's hard to argue against it once you stack the derby flameouts on top of the shutout and Sanchez's line. A team gets a handful of chances every few decades to host this thing in its own park, and the Phillies' stars managed to lose the derby, lose the game, and hand the other league a historic shutout all in the same 72 hours.
Pardon My Take picked up on the pile-on too, pointing to a viral graphic making the rounds that framed it bluntly: the Phillies simply didn't show up for their own showcase.
Pardon My Take weighed in on the graphic that set off the pile-on over the Phillies' no-show week.
None of this changes anything about the Phillies' actual season, an exhibition week is an exhibition week, but the optics sting because of who was on the field. Sanchez has been a legitimate front-line arm this year, Harper is a former MVP and derby threat, and Schwarber's power is basically an annual derby storyline at this point. Getting outscored 4-0 by the other league, in your own park, with that group representing you, is the kind of thing that gets replayed on highlight shows for years.
The bigger question now is whether any of it lingers into the second half. All-Star hangovers are usually more folklore than fact, but Philly fans who spent the week booing at their own showcase, per reports out of Citizens Bank Park, aren't exactly walking away feeling good about the next 3 months. The Phillies still have a division race to worry about, and this week will get filed away as an embarrassing footnote unless the actual roster starts backing it up in games that count.