Phillies fan mood — September 18, 2026

Aaron Nola's seven scoreless innings against the Mets — a 1.86 ERA over his last eight starts — has gone from pleasant surprise to a postseason necessity with Luzardo sidelined, and the narrative around him has fully flipped from alarm to quiet admiration.

Unable to throw pain-free five days after being scratched, Luzardo is widely being penciled out of the Wild Card round entirely — and the dominoes from his absence, a bullpen game, reduced flexibility with Painter, a waiver claim to eat innings, are piling up fast.

Eighteen hits and eleven runs over his last two starts, visible frustration on the mound, and a pitching coach laptop session at his locker have shifted the conversation from 'third ace' to 'what can we realistically expect from him in October?'

Trea Turner's 609 OPS since August against Bohm's 877, a bat flying into the third-base dugout, and 13 walks producing three runs against a bullpen game have pushed calls to demote Turner and promote Bohm to second — and broader frustration that the front office never addressed the structural holes in this lineup.

Luzardo's absence is now exposing the trade-deadline decision not to add rotation depth — a waiver-wire arm claimed off the White Sox and a rehab-stage Nestor Cortez are the answers, and that reality is drawing pointed criticism about organizational planning and the hitting-coach situation alike.