Bryce Harper joined the Phillies to win a World Series. Instead, he is watching his team go through its worst losing streak since 2018 (9-game).

The 2026 season has been a disaster so far, and per Harper, he has never seen a team struggle like this. Still, he hasn’t lost hope. He is challenging his teammates to fight back, end their losing streak, and get out of this hole.

“I can’t remember something like this in my career,” Harper told ESPN’s Jesse Rogers.

“We got to get through it. Obviously, we don’t want to be where we are right now. I think you could probably tell me better if we have been through this, or other teams that I’ve played with have been through this, but I know teams that have been through this and been through the mud a little bit and still climbed out of it. Yeah, we got to do it.”

The Phillies entered Thursday’s series finale against the Chicago Cubs with an 8-16 losing record. Absolutely nothing is working.

While the Phillies’ offense only put together seven runs against the Cubs, their pitching gave up as many as 19. During their losing streak, the Philadelphia hitters have collectively scored only 16 runs as opposed to their opponents’ 56. And now, even the finale is lost (8-17), pushing their standings to 8-17.

On Wednesday night, they ranked 28th in BA (.218) and ERA (4.99). Rookie center fielder Justin Crawford dropped a fly ball that would have been the third out in the second inning. The Cubs quickly struck for an RBI double.

The team is even struggling against lefties, as 10 of their total losses have come against those starters. And Wednesday’s 7-2 loss was no different, as they faced 5 SOs in 4 2/3 innings against lefty Matthew Boyd.

Now in his eighth year of a massive 13-year, $330 million contract, Harper is doing what he can.

After Dave Dombrowski called him ‘not elite’ last season, the 33-year-old is slashing .264/.350/.505 this season. In terms of driving home runs, Harper (5) is only second to Kyle Schwarber (8) till now in 2026.

Against the Cubs, Harper went 2-for-11, recorded five total bases while driving in one homer and two RBI in three games.

Harper has only played for one other team in his career apart from the Phillies, the Washington Nationals. While the Nats may not be able to set that comeback instance to look up to, the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers can surely be one.

They lost 5-25 overall between late August and mid-September, including an 11-game losing streak. The team went from looking like the “Best Team Ever” to failing in all areas. Starters were hammered for a 6.34 ERA during the 11-game slide, and the bullpen became shaky. Their hitting average stood at a mere .200 during this slump, scoring only 2.36 runs per game. But the Boys in Blue didn’t panic.

Manager Dave Roberts and the front office revamped roles for the playoffs. Brandon Morrow emerged as a reliable set-up man, and Kenta Maeda moved to a dominant role in the bullpen. Before that, Clayton Kershaw snapped the 11-game losing streak with a 5-3 win over the Giants on September 12. The team also made sure to help Corey Seager prepare for the postseason by resting him enough. Result?

LA overcame the “funk” and finished with 104 wins, which was a franchise record till 2022. They carried that momentum into the postseason, sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS and defeating the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS to advance to the World Series for the first time since 1988. Even though the Houston Astros won the ring that year, the Dodgers became a part of history for their spectacular return.

Harper hopes that his team can also get through minus-50 run differential, so far, the worst in the league.

Harper is a part of the elite core, alongside Schwarber, Trea Turner, and J.T. Realmuto, who won back-to-back NL East titles. But with most of these stars now deep into their 30s, they are looking for a way out of this slump before their postseason hopes fade. And Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field surely gave some hope.

Even though the final result was a 4-game series sweep, the Phils rallied for four runs in the late innings to come back from a 6-2 deficit and tie the game on a pinch-hit single by Edmundo Sosa in the top of the eighth. They could even extend the game to extra innings.

Yet, they lost it all in the bottom of the 10th when the Cubs pushed across the game-winning run on a hit by Dansby Swanson against Tanner Banks.

But Kyle Schwarber sounded positive after their last game.

“We gave up some runs but kept fighting back and extended it into extra innings. That’s the way we play baseball. Guys were grinding. We kept the energy up. We found a way through it, kept the pressure on them. Obviously, we don’t end up with a win but if we keep playing baseball like that we’re going to get a lot of good results moving forward.”

Back in 2022, the Philadelphia Phillies fired manager Joe Girardi, following a 22-29 start to the season. Dombrowski appointed the then-bench coach Rob Thomson as an interim manager, who led the club to its first National League pennant since 2009. The 2022 Phillies qualified for the World Series, too. So, accountability helps.

That’s the same deal the team is following now, holding underperforming players accountable. And Taijuan Walker took the first blow there.

Bryce Harper reacts to Taijuan Walker’s exit

The Philadelphia Phillies manager, Rob Thomson, confirmed to Jesse Rogers of ESPN that Taijuan Walker’s release has been solely performance-based.

The Phillie pitchers were tagged for 13 hits, including a pair of homers on Wednesday’s loss to Chicago. And within five batters in the second and third innings, Taijuan Walker gave up the cycle.

He allowed an RBI double to Pete Crow-Armstrong, a triple to Alex Bregman, an RBI single to Ian Happ, and a solo homer to Michael Busch. In the fifth, he even surrendered a two-run homer to Seiya Suzuki.

Filling Zack Wheeler’s spot, Walker took on the reliever’s job for four innings, hoping for a better performance. But that led to his giving up eight hits and five runs. In 22 2/3 innings, his ERA stood at 9.13.

“Tai gave up a lot of hard contact,” exclaimed the skipper after the game.

Walker was in the final year of his four-year, $72 million deal when the Phillies released him on Thursday.

Despite his performance issues, Harper appreciated his presence as a teammate.

He told Rogers, “He’s definitely one of the better guys that I’ve ever been around in the game, just teammate-wise. So it’s always tough seeing guys lose their job and get sent home.”

Owing to his previous struggles, the Phillies used an opener, Kyle Backhus, before they brought Walker in. However, it did nothing to favor him.

When asked about whether the players will immediately move on from Walker’s release, Harper mentioned that they need to process their emotions, especially amid the team’s terrible slump.

“I think people should feel what it feels like,” Harper expressed, per ESPN. “Obviously, you don’t want to just sit here and just say, ‘Oh, hey, let’s turn the page immediately.’ You got to know what it feels like and get through it. You got to get through the mud sometimes and weather the storm a little bit.”