Ho hum, another W for the Phillies, who are on a five game win streak, have won 10 of 12, and once again reached the .600 plateau, tied with the Dodgers for Major League Baseball’s best record. On Thursday night, it was five scoreless innings from Ranger Suarez, supported by four RBI split between Bryson Stott and Kody Clemens:

Clemens was recalled on September 1st and has played four games since. In 11 at-bats, he has three hits, two doubles, a home run, and five RBI while striking out twice. A small sample size, yes, but add it to his season numbers and he’s hitting .247 with a .286 on-base percentage and .534 slugging percentage, good enough for a career-high .820 OPS. He’s played 28 games and already clearec last year’s season high for extra-base hits while slugging well beyond the number he posted in 2023 and also with Detroit in 2022.

The recent run has been good enough to generate some “should he be on the postseason roster?” discussion:

We tend to overreact when someone has a good game. Rafael Marchan was a good example earlier this year. A couple of hits and Garrett Stubbs is being DFA’d by the fans, or traded to the White Sox. So no, Kody Clemens is probably not the player who will make or break a World Series run, but he does seem to take advantage of the opportunity when given. Considering him as a bench bat, you look at the recent pinch hit appearance for Johan Rojas in the 10-9 Toronto comeback, when he turned an 11-pitch at-bat into a fielder’s choice that scored a run and set up another in the same inning. He doubled in the 9th and Kyle Schwarber then hit the home run that won it for the Phils.

No matter what happens, it’s very nice to see the contribution from the guys on the fringes. And Clemens has left-handed power that nobody else is providing off the Phillies bench, so he does address a weakness there. Best you can do if your Clemens is make Dave Dombrowski and Rob Thomson’s decision as difficult as possible.