Phillies manage only two hits against the Braves and drop their sixth straight series

ATLANTA — Remember all the good vibrations after Zack Wheeler returned to the mound Saturday night and the Phillies snapped a 10-game losing streak in 10 innings?

Poof.

Vaporized in 10 pitches.

Aaron Nola dropped the Phillies down a three-run hole Sunday in the first inning of a game they stood little chance of winning anyway. And stop us if you’ve read this before: They lost to the Braves, 6-2, and it was as uncompetitive as it gets.

» READ MORE: Phillies manager Rob Thomson on speculation about his dismissal: ‘I’ve never worried about that’

“Not much I could say,” said Nola, who gave up three runs in the first inning and three in the second to hike his ERA to 6.03. “I didn’t give the guys too much help. I didn’t do my job well at all.”

Here’s the ugly reality, if you can stomach it:

And now, with a day off Monday before the start of a three-game homestand, get ready for more speculation about the walls closing in on manager Rob Thomson, especially after the Red Sox stunningly fired Alex Cora on Saturday night. Cora, hired in Boston by Dave Dombrowski, is close with the Phillies’ president of baseball operations.

In any case, when a team with a $317 million luxury-tax payroll plays so poorly, heads usually roll.

“I mean, we saw it back in 2022,” said Kyle Schwarber, referencing when Dombrowski fired Joe Girardi after 51 games and elevated Thomson from the bench coach role. “I feel like we have the right people here, and we’ve got the right people to figure it out.

“As a player, you feel responsible. We’re the ones who are out there. We’re taking at-bats, we’re playing defense, we’re pitching. We’re doing it all, and all of our coaches are here to support and to put us in the best positions that we can.”

Besides, much of the blame rests with Dombrowski, who brought back most of a roster that won 96 games last season but had obvious flaws. For one thing, left-handed pitching is Kryptonite to the Phillies, and Braves ace Chris Sale is among the best lefties in baseball.

» READ MORE: Dave Dombrowski is ‘responsible’ for this reeling Phillies roster. And these decisions helped get them here.

Thomson stacked the lineup with right-handed hitters, including utility man Dylan Moore in center field. Moore hadn’t started a game this season, but facing Sale isn’t a cure for lefty-swinging rookie Justin Crawford’s 4-for-34 funk.

How about Brandon Marsh in center field?

“I really like Marshie’s at-bats,” Thomson said. “I want to keep him right there, so give him a little breather on Sale.”

It scarcely mattered. Not only did Nola allow a three-run homer to Matt Olson in the first inning, but the Phillies got one hit against Sale and had one threat. With the bases loaded in the third inning, Bryce Harper foul-tipped a 98-mph heater into the catcher’s mitt to strike out — after being ahead 3-0 in the count.

The Phillies are batting .150 and slugging .237 in 10 games against non-opening lefty starters.

Care to guess their record in those games? Yep, 0-10.

“That’s telling,” Thomson said. “We’ve got to fix that somehow, for sure.”

OK, but how?

“I’m sure we’ll talk about it on the plane,” Thomson said. “Maybe it is the lineup. I don’t know. We’ve just got to discuss that and try to figure it out.”

It’s really an indictment of Dombrowski’s construction of the lineup, which is built around lefty-swinging Schwarber and Harper and lacks right-handed power.

To wit: Entering Sunday, the Phillies’ right-handed hitters were slashing .176/.257/.275 against left-handed pitching, a failure encapsulated in the fourth inning, when Sale struck out Felix Reyes, Adolis García, and Alec Bohm on 13 pitches.

» READ MORE: The numbers show that the Phillies run of ‘bad luck’ is largely stemming from poor defense

“It’s getting back to being a little bit too pull-oriented at times,” Thomson said. “If you’re a right-handed hitter, your target should be over the second baseman’s head because that’s where the ball’s coming from in that angle. It’s easier said than done.”

Thomson reaffirmed his confidence in hitting coach Kevin Long, who has come under equal or even greater scrutiny than the manager. There’s a potential replacement on staff in Don Mattingly, a great hitter as a player with the Yankees and a former hitting coach.

“Kevin’s one of the best in the game,” Thomson said. “There’s a couple of Hall of Famers out there that will tell you that. I’m all on board with him.”

Sure, but something has to change.

“Obviously nobody ever thought we would go on a losing skid like this,” Nola said. “It’s baseball, though. We’ve got to get out of it, and we’ve got to stay out of it. Things will change. We believe that.”

Unless it’s already too late.