Phillies turn to Four Bombers, having tried Four Aces

Suddenly, for numerology fans, the Philadelphia Phillies story has become a matter of fours, fives, and elevens.

Eleven years ago, the Fightin’s assembled a staff of four ace starters – Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt. Eleven long years changed the team’s theory of winning to four bombers, a quartet who might well hit 40 home runs apiece out of Citizens Bank Bandbox – Bryce Harper, Nick Castellanos, Kyle Schwarber, and Rhys Hoskins.

Eleven years have turned the Phillies completely away from their Four Aces notion.

Additionally, there are the fives.

When the Four Aces were introduced in 2011 at Spring Training, they refused to take the stage without the team’s fifth starter, Joe Blanton, a journeyman hero of the 2008 World Champions – he homered in Game 4.

In 2022, the fifth player who could join the Four Bombers, J.T. Realmuto, might also touch 40 homers with enough games at DH, to rest his legs.

Probably not, but hey, who saw Blanton homering in the World Series?

As I recall, the Phillies Four Aces made it to the cover of Sports Illustrated, which was an important sports magazine at one time.

What could possibly have gone wrong with Four Aces? For quite a while, nothing did. The team won a team-record 102 games and seemed destined for glory. As Destiny Lugardo has noted, “The 2011 Phillies rotation had a combined 3.02 ERA, the lowest mark for a starting staff in MLB since 1989.” They also led the league in wins, strikeouts, and quality starts. Then they crashed and burned in Game 5 of the NLDS against the Cardinals.

Halladay lost to a personal friend, Chris Carpenter, 1-0. Both had been drafted high in the ’90s by the Blue Jays.

However, eleven years later, the Four Bombers seem to guarantee the Phillies a playoff spot in the newly expanded MLB tournament scheme.

Newcomers Schwarber and Castellanos have made all the right noises to the media (although the former Reds star has yet to have his post-physical presser). Castellanos has even made a remark about lacking a college degree, which means that he feeds his family by hitting baseballs. This is a remark that, should he hit baseballs well this season, will be repeated by Phillies fans.

But it might be best to recall a nearly forgotten remark by one of the Four Aces. At that memorable news conference before Spring Training began in ’11, Cliff Lee remarked, “I think we haven’t thrown a single pitch as a group yet.”

It was a point to ponder: Schwarber has taken three at-bats in Florida, and Castellanos none. Vague matters such as team chemistry and not so vague matters like hitting a hard slider away still loom.

For now, though, everybody who follows baseball in the Delaware Valley is delighted.

However, as a very old coaches’ commonplace goes, “That’s why they play the games.”

Oh, and Oxford Languages defines numerology as the branch of “knowledge” having to do with the “occult significance” of numbers. In fact, Phillies fans should hope that fours, fives, and elevens mean nothing this season.