Phillies

The Phillies Have Baseball’s Second-Best June Record and Still Lost Ground in the NL East

By Kyle Pagan

Published: Jun 29th, 2023 · 3:33 PM EDT

---

Crazy stat to chew on from Corey Seidman:

If the Phillies win tonight, they'll be 17-7 in June but will have lost 3 games of ground to the Braves, a half-game to the Marlins and have the same record this month as the Giants team they're chasing in the wild-card race.

— Corey Seidman (@CSeidmanNBCS) June 29, 2023

That’s some unspeakable bad luck. Having your best month record-wise and you lose ground in the NL East race and wash out the Wild Card. That includes a streak of eight straight wins on the road despite the fact that Bryce Harper hasn’t hit a home run since late May.

Now you’re probably thinking, “Hey dumbass it’s better than the alternative.” Which you are correct. If the Phils played .500 ball in June they’d be eight games back of a Wild Card spot.

Hang your hat on the fact that the Phils aren’t even playing their best baseball yet. They’re still struggling with RISP, aren’t fully healthy, and lack pop at multiple positions. The reason for the good month is largely due to Nick Castellanos and the pitching:

Ranger Suárez is on a different level right now.

His last 6 games:

40 IP, 29 H, 6 ER, 10 BB, 37 K, 1.35 ERA, 0.975 WHIP

pic.twitter.com/pNBmQOqh6b

— Bob Wankel (@Bob_Wankel) June 28, 2023

MLB pitchers this month with 30+ IP and 16 or less hits allowed.

— Taijuan Walker
— Blake Snell

Taijuan in June
1.50 ERA | 0.83 WHIP | 8.4 K/9#RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/T74vEQV2FZ

— PhillieSavant (@Phillie_Savant) June 29, 2023

Even Aaron Nola got out of the Toyota RAV 4th inning with only one run given up. A tremendous feat this year:

Aaron Nola has a 7.56 ERA this season in the Toyota RAV 4th inning

— John Foley (@2008Philz) June 29, 2023

This is a good baseball team. That’s the best part after waiting 11 years for them to be. They’ll be plenty of meaningful games this summer. Something we couldn’t even say this time last year.