The Phillies clubbed the Dodgers 9-4 Wednesday night/Thursday morning on the strength of three Schwarbombs, but what really got the juices flowing was when Matt Strahm drilled Gavin Lux in the bottom of the 8th:

This is classic baseball. Nick Castellanos takes a 97 MPH fastball and says “That’s a big miss dog, that’s a big fuckin’ miss.” So Matt Strahm comes back in the bottom of the inning with a 94 MPH retaliatory heater of his own, Lux says “the fuck is that?“, and we carry on. You’re gonna hit our guy, we’re gonna hit your guy. Now we’re even.

(Then, to cap it off, Schwarbs hit his third bomb of the night in the top of the ninth to punctuate the series win. The Phils took 5 of 6 from the Dodgers this year.)

Baseball retaliation is kind of like hockey fighting in 2024. You don’t see it as much as you used to. Old timers will say the game has gone soft, that you need to protect your teammates with actions or else you’re a pussy. Some people roll their eyes at brutish retaliatory physicality these days, but every sequence is different, and this Strahm/Castellanos exhibit felt like it was appropriately timed. Why? Because the Phils have been slumping since the All Star Break and the vibes are low. They needed an attitude injection of some sorts, and this felt like one of those “let’s fucking go” moments.. A reinvigoration of sorts. All of a sudden, they’ve won 3 of 4 and next up is a four-game revenge set with the rat bastards in the desert,