PHILADELPHIA — You could tell the Phillies were taking on the Chicago Cubs Tuesday night from the standpoint of a team that had just successfully reached a relaxation point in the season. Having partied the post-game night away Monday after a National League East-clinching 6-2 victory over the Cubs, the Phils announced that the starter for the series’ second game would be Tanner Banks. That would be the Tanner Banks who for both the Chicago White Sox and Phillies this season appeared in 60 games … one start and 59 relief appearances before Tuesday night. Yet there was Banks, clearly the starter of a “bullpen game” the Phillies had planned all along. Good reason for that, since these NL East champions have played the last couple of months with essentially four viable starters and a guest starter of the week who usually hit the showers before breaking a sweat. That proud list would include, among others, Taijuan Walker, Tyler Phillips, Kolby Allard, Tyler Gilbert, Michael Mercado and Seth Johnson, whose lone appearance was a Sept. 9 start in Miami that saw the Marlins score nine earned runs off him before he was lifted after 2.1 innings. While Johnson’s might be the most extreme case — with a 34.71 ERA to show for his major league work this season — none of the recent replacements for Walker have come close to proving capable in a starting role. And that would hold true for Walker, too, since after failing in the fifth starter’s role much of the season was moved to the bullpen, but in the wake of everyone else failing, too, was moved back. He had one encouraging relief outing against his old Mets team on Sept. 14, not getting scored upon over three innings after Kolby Allard had been shredded for three innings. But five days later, Walker was given the ball for his first start since the end of August. He lasted one out into the fourth and gave up eight earned runs. Yet due to the Phillies’ inability to promote anything other than a sacrificial stand-in, there was Walker again Tuesday night, coming in when Rob Thomson barely gave Banks time to breathe through this ridiculous starting assignment. Banks wasn’t always a reliever, he essentially was a starter for much of his early career in the minors. But even at Triple-A in more recent times, he had 47 appearances from 2021-23, with only seven of them starts. With the White Sox in 2022, he had 35 appearances, with no starts. So it really had been a long time for the guy to try to make a sudden adjustment, and it showed. In the first inning Tuesday, Banks gave up a double to designated hitter Seiya Suzuki, but otherwise escaped clean. Then came the second inning. And there went the game plan. Banks got the first out, then hit Michael Busch with a pitch. Nico Hoerner followed with a single, then Pete Crow-Armstrong, trying to bunt the runners over, essentially blooped his bunt over Banks’ head, good for a single to load the bases. … And that was it. The guest starter was done. Thomson almost ran out to the mound, clapped his hands and patted the pitcher on the back … and essentially ushered him off. If that wasn’t bad enough, who would relieve Banks but Walker? Two walks and two singles later, the Cubs had a 6-1 lead, another chapter in Taijuan Walker’s season from hell was written, Rob Thomson had jumped on the fans’ jeer list one night after winning a division title, and the Phillies’ most glaring weakness had won the day again. Walker would last into the fourth inning, when he gave up two more hits before getting booed off the field when Thomson finally walked to the mound (to a wonderfully sardonic applause) to give him some relief. That would be from … Kolby Allard. He managed to finish off the Cubs in that inning to keep the Phillies within four runs at that point. Banks … Walker … Allard … does it really matter? It’s been ridiculously long since this championship team didn’t have to almost count on a loss at least every five days because the rotating cast of No. 5 pitchers has been so pathetic. The good news, of course, is that over the course of a best-of-three Wild Card and best-of-5 divisional series, a fifth starter isn’t needed. The same holds true even late in the playoff season, what with staggered schedules and the need for a full five days of rest sometimes thrown out the window in times of need. And yet, despite the promise of an effective 1-2 starting punch of Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola, recently rock-solid No. 3 Cristopher Sanchez and formerly rock-solid (but eventually erratic) Ranger Suarez, the Phillies’ absence of a viable fifth starter could almost hang over them like a foreboding shadow as the postseason wears on. It’s to the point where Spencer Turnbull, the veteran projected to relieve, but with Walker hurt in the spring had turned himself into a very effective starter early on in the season, is perhaps being counted upon to somehow make it back and be declared eligible for the postseason, even when he hasn’t pitched since June 26 at Detroit. He went on the Injured List the next day with a “right lat strain,” and only now is trying to gear back up with minor league rehab assignments. Best wishes on his hope to return. And for the Phillies, good luck going deep into the playoffs without a fifth starter/effective long relief guy. That role might be less important at this time of year, but true championship teams find ways to cover up for their worst weakness. The Phillies are still looking for an answer to theirs. Contact Rob Parent at [email protected]