The Philadelphia Phillies seemed poised to firmly assert themselves as a very serious NL contender in Milwaukee. Then Brandon Woodruff took the mound.
When Philadelphia Phillies righthander Jake Arrieta picked up his fifth win May 25, it seemed that, perhaps, his team had turned a corner.
First, the pitching performance induced use of the word “gem” by the print copy local paper’s headline writer, something that person hadn’t had occasion to do yet this season for Arrieta. Online the win was merely an “impressive eight innings” because, you know – wouldn’t want to confuse people doing Google searches for engagement rings or some such.
Second, the win put the Phillies ten games over .500 for the first time this season and established that they could, in fact, compete with the formidable Milwaukee Brewers. Earlier in the month, that didn’t seem certain at all.
The day before Memorial Day, the Phillies, then, had tied the season’s series with Milwaukee, 3-3, after three fairly horrid losses in a row earlier in the month, and hoped for a sweep against the Brew Crew that afternoon. Zach Eflin, who had compiled a 2.76 ERA, would face Milwaukee’s Brandon Woodruff.
The Phillies starters, seemingly iffy at the beginning of the season, seemed “OK” In the middle of the holiday weekend. Three pitchers had five wins apiece, and the guy with the best won-lost record, oddly, had the worst ERA. At 5-0, Aaron Nola had a 4.53 ERA and a very uncharacteristic 1.543 WHIP; Arrieta had just moved his record to 5-4, and lowered his ERA to 3.60; Eflin was also 5-4 and had a WHIP of 1.145.
The fourth and fifth starters were a bit up in the air, but what MLB team can say theirs aren’t?
The offense had carried all three of the best starters quite a bit, but all of them were pitching better as the weather warmed. That offense, though, was proving every bit as impressive as expected as teams came to the 50-game mark. Seven players had 23 RBI or more; five had 26 or more. Rhys Hoskins had 41. Two hitters were well over .300 in batting average, with Jean Segura at .320.
For comparison’s sake, the Los Angeles Dodgers, at 16 games over .500 before play May 26, had seven players with 22 RBI or more and three with 27 or more. Cody Bellinger had 48 RBI and was hitting an otherworldly .391.