Philadelphia Phillies: Four days to the halfway pole
By Rick Soisson
The Philadelphia Phillies have played well thus far. As they pass the halfway point, how realistic is it to be thinking about the playoffs?
As the Philadelphia Phillies approached the literal halfway mark of their 2018 season, it seemed a good time to evaluate their chances for the playoffs in a careful way. Their 81st game would be a Saturday, June 30 contest against Washington at home, and so two lists of pluses and minuses were started for what they accomplished on the field from four games out to that mark. The results were actually encouraging. For a while.
June 27 saw the Fightin’ Phils’ successful attempt to salvage a game against the mighty New York Yankees. The Bombers had already taken two games from the team near the end of a 25-game stretch against winning teams for 22 of those games. (Game 25 would start the second half July 1.)
Perhaps the first note about this game was negative, but it actually had little to do with the Phillies performance on the field. That observation was most of the tickets to the game, seemingly well over half, were apparently held by Yankees fans. However, the NBC Sports Philly broadcast crew tried to establish by repetition the crowd division was about half and half. That was a firm maybe.
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On the field, however, the Phils posted a 3-0 win, and those Yankees fans were leaving early at the game’s end. By this observer’s count, the game’s true positives beat the negatives by a margin of two, 3-1.
The first positive was right-hander Zach Eflin pushing his record to 6-2 with his fifth win in June (1.76 ERA in that stretch). While some pitchers develop secondary pitches early in their MLB careers, Eflin arrived in Philadelphia with a good sinker and change-up, but after knee repairs for a chronic problem, is throwing more fastballs. He could be the third solid Phillies starter.
In June Eflin beat nothing but strong teams: the Cubs, the Brewers (twice), the Nationals and the Yankees.
Hoskins Moves into Record HR Territory Again
The second plus in the last Yankees game was the three-run homer Rhys Hoskins hit in the second inning to the opposite field. Hoskins had not had much solid food since he fouled off a pitch into his jaw, fracturing it at the end of May. The day after this game he reportedly had eaten a cheeseburger – one – the previous week. But since returning to play June 9, he has been hot, and his 12th homer helped raise his batting average from .239 the night he returned to .252 at game’s end.
Incidentally, this home run in his 119th MLB game made Hoskins the fastest to 30 in team history. He passed Hall of Famer Chuck Klein by 19 games. (The MLB record is held by Rudy York, who reached 30 homers in 79 games in 1937.)
Finally, as per the NBC Sports broadcast team that night, this game left the Phillies tied for the second wild card spot.
The one negative that night was Odubel Herrera’s hitless performance. After a very hot season’s start, the center fielder’s offense had fallen off steeply, but lately, he had fought his way back to a .305 BA in the last game before New York arrived in Philly. For the Yankees series he was 0-for-11.
The Nationals Arrive
The next game yielded a greater number of positives and negatives, so the June 28 recap will be briefer. Positives again outnumbered negatives, 7-2, in a 4-3 win over the Washington Nationals.
Those seven positive notes (milestones and performances) included the Phillies 1) going into the game with 10.3% walk rate, the best in major league baseball; 2) scoring in the third inning on a sac fly by Scott Kingery, a play on which Odubel Herrera was properly held at third by coach Dusty Wathan after the outfield throw; 3) starter Aaron Nola improving to 10-2, with a shutdown of the Nats in the sixth after two singles to open the frame, finishing off Trea Turner with two killer curves.
Additionally (nos. four through seven), Hoskins hit a two-run homer, his 13th and second in two days; Nola went 7 2/3s – 1R, two on base at leaving; Adam Morgan ended a two-out threat with two on with one pitch, and Seranthony Dominguez collected his sixth save in seven opportunities.
But two serious negatives appeared as well. Before he booked his sac fly, Kingery had struck out looking with the bases loaded in the first, and reliever Tommy Hunter again looked less than wonderful, allowing the Nats back into the game.
A Large Negative Effort
Philadelphia Phillies
By all accounts, the game June 29 was a mess for the Phillies. Various angles are possible, but without counting everything, this game was a 20-4 negatives “win,” one point for each of the 17 runs Washington scored and three more for more than three problems. Philadelphia gets four points only for not being shut out. Four positives might be generous.
Hoskins hit this 13th homer at the end of a 13-pitch battle in the fifth. Carlos Santana homered impressively. It wasn’t enough. Nick Pivetta had already been severely torched early. The Phillies lost, 17-7.
The season’s halfway game, June 30, was a on a hot evening in South Philly, and early notes indicated if the first inning were like the rest, Phillies fans were in for some dreadful TV. Neither team scored; 51 pitches were thrown.
After that point, however, a somewhat tense, interesting game ensued. What will undoubtedly cause the most comment was a play Phillies pitcher Vince Velasquez’ made in the second when he made a left-handed throw to first after a 97-mph liner off the bat of Adam Eaton had temporarily numbed his regular throwing hand and forearm. Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt confidently asserted it “will be” called “the play of the year in Major League Baseball.”
Who knew Velasquez is actually ambidextrous?
The real story of the game, though, was the much maligned Phillies bullpen holding onto the eventual 3-2 win. Five different pitchers held the potent Nationals to a single run after Velasquez left for radiological studies, with Yacksel Rios getting three pivotal outs in the eighth inning with men on base.
By our unofficial scoring system of positives and negatives the Phillies win was by 9-4. The team had won three of its four games to finish up the first half of the season, but the aggregate positive-negative score for the four games was Opponents 27 – Phillies 23.
This is because of the obviously terrible loss to Washington June 29, but our informal scoring system of positive-negative pivotal (or telling) moments accurately suggests something about this Philadelphia team. The Phillies are within striking distance of first place Atlanta, but are they a for-a-while team – as in a “contender for a while”?
Without reinforcements, they could fall just short of a division championship, and perhaps a wild card game as well.