The Phillies Face Toughest Test Yet in Arizona Diamondbacks
The MLB regular season feels a lot like everyday life. That’s because games occur, well, every day.
If this is as unspectacular an analogy as one could make about the twists and turns of a 162-game season, well, then you caught me, but at least it’s true.
Since games are played nearly daily, the storylines surrounding the teams tend to be short-sighted in scope: the team couldn’t hit with runners on base, the bullpen failed, the outfield was surprisingly adept, etcetera. The same thing happens in our daily lives; with every passing work day, that appointment you’ve been meaning to schedule gets postponed, the phone call with a friend pushed back, that job application delayed – but over the course of MLB’s regular season, we as viewers, have the unique perspective of being able to look outside the timeline of the immediate results and gain a sense of the larger picture.
All of this is to say, the Philadelphia Phillies’ recent hot streak or heatwave, if you will – for much of it has occurred on late nights in the middle of June – hasn’t just come out of nowhere. The Phillies, now at 32-33, are 8.0 games out from the division lead and just 1.5 back from the third wild card spot. This weekend’s victory against the Dodgers marked the Phillies’ third straight series victory and their seventh win in the last eight games.
So what’s changed?
Why are the Phillies suddenly playing decent baseball?
Well, a number of things. For all intents and purposes, the month of June is likely on some cosmic collision with the Phillies, bringing them untold success every calendar year. Their recent success is likely due to various factors, the first of which is that they’ve played mainly bad teams in June. After being swept by the Mets to start the month, the Phillies were fortunate enough the play the Nationals and Tigers in quick succession, and then, when they faced the far more competent Dodgers, they lived up to the test, taking two out of three from Los Angeles.
Another key cog in the Phillies’ hot streak has been none other than Mr. June himself, Kyle Schwarber. In 10 games this month, Schwarber has an OPS of .953 with four home runs, including a walk-off homer on Friday night. The Phillies, in that period, are 7-3. The offense as a whole – with a special shoutout to Trea Turner and Nick Castellanos is beginning to look alive, mustering up hits with runners in scoring position. Apparently, that puts you in a good position to win ball games. Who knew?
The starting pitching is starting to hum as well – Ranger Suarez had his best start of the year on Friday night, going six innings with eight strikeouts and allowing just one earned run. Taijuan Walker, who had been downright terrible to start the year, had ridden his nasty splitter to two consecutive strong starts – finally showing some of the potentials the organization saw in him when they inked him to a four-year $72 million contract. The team’s two best pitchers – Zach Wheeler and Aaron Nola – are finally starting to pitch like themselves again.
Maybe what this Phillies team needed was just time.
Time to gel, time to get healthy again, time for new additions to get used to their surroundings, and for veterans to work out the kinks.
Could this hot streak all be for nothing? Could the Phillies collapse against their biggest test yet, the Arizona Diamondbacks, proving that they aren’t the team we all thought they could be? Maybe.
But if this hot streak has shown us anything, it’s that they just might have the potential to live up to everyone’s lofty expectations of what they should be.
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