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Feeling Good About the First-Place Phillies After a Barometer, Measuring Stick, Whatever You Want to Call it Series Win Over the Mets
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Sometimes you just have to keep it simple and go macro instead of micro after a big series win against the Mets:
Only the Tigers, Dodgers, and Phillies have winning percentages above .600 going into this week. In fact, 47-31 is the second-best record the Phillies have had in late June dating back to the Chase Utley and Ryan Howard era. It’s second only to last year, 2024, when they stormed out to a 51-26 start and then flattened out in the second half.
This first-half run has been a little more streaky, but the Phils recovered from a brutal nine-losses-in-ten-games streak to win 10 of 13, and that has them in first place in the NL East with the slumping Mets falling back a game.
The most important thing about this past weekend was the mental side of the series win. The optics of taking two-of-three from a team that last swept you in New York and previously dispatched you in the NLDS with relative ease. You can win all the games in the world against the Blue Jays and Marlins, but if you’re a believer in the “barometer” or “measuring stick” series, then this was it, and they passed. Zack Wheeler didn’t have his best stuff on Friday night, yet he leaves with zero earned runs and eight strikeouts, giving up just four hits over five innings. Taijuan Walker comes in and gets rocked, then the bats break it open in the 7th and carry it the rest of the way. Game 2 was a wash, with Mick Abel giving up dinger after dinger, but they responded on Sunday with a dominant Jesus Luzardo start, six and two-thirds innings of three-hit, no-run ball. Again the hitters put insurance runs on the board and there was no clenching of teeth as Jordan Romano, Max Lazar, and Matt Strahm finished it off.
So it was a good series, and a needed series, but we didn’t necessarily learn anything about the Phillies that we don’t already know. Abel was due for a bad one at some point, but the starting pitching is overall elite and they will go as far as Wheeler, Luzardo, Cristopher Sanchez, Ranger Suarez, and maybe Aaron Nola take them. Walker appears to be his old self and the bullpen needs reinforcement. It’s needed reinforcement for some time now. And the hitting, when it’s on, is as good any team’s hitting in Major League Baseball. It’s never been a question of talent; it’s a question of streakiness and plate discipline and how those two things manifest come October.
You have to feel good about the Phillies on this Monday morning. 94 WIP put out a poll asking “Are you back in on the Phillies?”, but it’s safe to assume that most of us were never out, because it’s June. And it’s never been more clear that the Phillies need to BUY at the deadline, because this team has just as good of a chance of winning it all as they did between 2022 and 2024. If Dave Dombrowski stands pat and/or simply goes dumpster diving, then you’re just wasting another year of a core that’s largely already on the wrong side of 30.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com