​Jose Alvarado has put more lefties on base this season than the last three combined.The Phillies walked off with an extra-inning victory over the Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon, yet Monday felt like anything but the morning after a win.It felt that way because the Phillies blew a lead in all three games to a Toronto team playing out the string. They suffered costly bullpen meltdowns Saturday and Sunday. They didn’t play cleanly on defense or the bases. They continue to perform like an extremely top-heavy team that needs its stars to play like stars in every series, which is not realistic over the course of 162 games.At times this season, the biggest concern has been the lineup. At times, it has been the ghastly No. 5 starter’s spot. Right now, it’s the bullpen. If you’ve watched this group of relievers since Opening Day and especially since the All-Star break, you’re likely wondering how the Phillies will possibly be able to maneuver through these final 43 regular-season games into the playoffs.The playoffs, by the way, are not guaranteed. The Phillies begin the week in the third and final National League wild-card spot, just a game ahead of the Padres. They won the season series against San Diego so the tiebreaker gives the Phils a de facto two-game lead, but this race is far from over. The next team on the Phillies’ schedule is the Cardinals and they’ll play them six times over the next two weeks. St. Louis is 3½ games behind the Phillies and can make the playoff picture much tighter if the Phils don’t win at least three of these head-to-heads.The ideal scenarioThe Phillies have an elite closer in Jhoan Duran. They have three elite starting pitchers in Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sanchez and Jesus Luzardo. In a playoff game, you’d ideally be using the starter for seven innings and Duran for one, needing only three outs from your top setup man, Jonathan Bowlan, whose next two months will be the biggest of his baseball life.But that’s the best-case scenario that postseason games rarely follow. If the Phillies make it to October, there will likely be nights when Sanchez lasts 5⅓ innings rather than seven, or when Bowlan doesn’t have it, or when more than one reliever is required to get through an inning in a tie game. And in those situations, they’re going to need to use Jose Alvarado or Orion Kerkering. Good luck with that.The Alvarado problemAlvarado is not the overpowering reliever he once was. His fastball has averaged 97.1 mph this season, down significantly from last year’s 99.6. Was last year’s consistently explosive velo fueled by the PEDs that cost him 80 games?Alvarado at 97 is much different than Alvarado at 99-100. His pitching philosophy has long been to trust his stuff and focus on throwing strikes, not worrying so much about pinpoint command because the fastball and cutter were almost always explosive enough to miss a bat. It’s not the case in 2026 and it’s why putting hitters away has become so much m