By Matt Rappa, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The once-promising and seemingly postseason-bound Philadelphia Phillies simply collapsed. Since their last series win against the Miami Marlins in early August, the club has gone from 15 games over .500 with a 1 1/2-game division lead, to just three games over .500 with a 7 1/2-game division deficit.
Over the last 30 days, the Phillies have posted the eighth-fewest runs scored (108), and the fifth-worst combined team ERA (4.93). Thursday morning on SportsRadio 94 WIP, Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said that while all teams go through "stretches of struggles," the club's current skid has been a "long" and "pronounced" one.
"When we were playing very well, in first place in the middle of the summer, that wasn't the finish line. We've played poorly for a good stretch, and this isn't the finish line either. We fight, scratch and claw until we reach that finish line," Kapler said. "Over the course of the last six weeks, whether we've had this happen the first, third or the ninth inning, we haven't put our opponents away when we had the opportunity, on the mound or at the plate."
Kapler maintained positive and optimistic throughout much of the season, and he will not stray away from it with the 17 games that remain.
"If saying that we will continue to work and continue to prepare to improve our game is optimism, then that's what I have to continue to do. My job is to help us control the things that we're capable of controlling," Kapler said.
"I don't think that saying that 'everything is going wrong,' … I don't think that throwing my hands up and having our club do anything but fight is what will help us turn things around."
There is not one right or wrong reason behind the Phillies' collapse. Some critics have argued it is due to their young players getting tired, acquiring and introducing veterans to an unconventional clubhouse, or overuse of analytics. Kapler argues against the youth reasoning, however, saying that their poor performance and inconsistencies "come with normal player development."
"You haven't seen this upward trend all season long. You've seen some rises and some falls along the way. Outside of Aaron Nola, a guy who has just sort of been really, really, really good all season long, we've had guys who've had their ups and downs, which is really natural," Kapler said. "It's natural to have your ups and downs. In particular, when you're in your first, second and third year of service time in Major League Baseball, you're going to have more of that."
Kapler reiterated that analytics, in particular, is simply "just information" and "there's really nothing too fancy about it." The rookie manager uses such information to do his job in putting "the best product on the field every single day."
"Batting average is analytics. RBIs are analytics. I think what you are referring to is probably that we use that information to help us make decisions. I'm not sure that there's another sensible way for us to do it," Kapler said.
"It's not to say that we won't pay very close attention to what's happening around us and be responsive to our environment, but we're going to use information to help us make decisions for the rest of the season. It feels like the sensible and reasonable thing to do."
Fan attendance around baseball has been noticably low, and Phillies fans all season have been criticized for not "showing up" to watch their first-place team play. The circumstances are a lot different now, with the summer season nearing an end, school back in session, and the team skidding on seemingly all facets. According to a stadium vendor in conversation with SportsTalkPhilly.com, only 620 people were counted at the 3 p.m. game of Tuesday's single-admission doubleheader against the Washington Nationals. Kapler said the team plays better when it has "a tremendous amount of support" rallying behind.
"We have had that tremendous amount of support pretty much the entire season, and our dugout, clubhouse, players and staff have all felt a great deal of support from the City of Philadelphia and its fans," Kapler said.
"We feel really proud of the players that we put out there. I'm not saying that we don't feel disappointed when we win or when we go through a stretch of six weeks where we really struggle … and we have," Kapler said. "We have not played good baseball for six weeks. But, our job is to go out there and perform to the best of our abilities."
Kapler said that despite the Phillies' struggles and the fact that he "hates" and "despises" losing, he "loves" his job now more than ever, given every day it "presents a series of challenges."
"More recently, those challenges have become more difficult, but it doesn't mean that I want my job any less," he said, "it just means it's more difficult through those challenging stretches."
