The Phillies have spent the last three or four weeks, general manager Matt Klentak said, trying to determine what exactly happened in August that sent the team into a tailspin.
Their offense stalled and their starting pitching cracked as they lost control of first place and dug themselves into a hole that feels awfully deep with two weeks left in the season. Just before their stumble, the Phillies injected their young roster with three players before the trade deadline and then three more in early August.
"We come up with a theory, we test it, we try to reach some sort of conclusion: What happened in the month of August that we stopped winning baseball games," Klentak said.