Ad Disclosure
Let’s Recap Another Excellent Phillies Weekend
By Matt Schultz
Published:
The Phillies took two of three from the Mets over the weekend, and are now sitting just 3 games back from Atlanta for the NL East lead. What a weekend. What a time. There’s a lot to be pumped about. Allow me to rattle off a few things that have me amped:
A Few Phillies Tidbits That Have Me Amped:
-The Braves are falling apart beautifully. They’ve lost 6 of 7 and 12 of 16 (woof). The Phillies were 10.5 games back in April. That the Phils have made up this much ground this quickly is remarkable, and it couldn’t have happened without Atlanta’s poor play. Thank you, Braves.
-Kyle Schwarber hit his MLB-leading 30th home run on Sunday. He’s on pace to hit 61 homers this season. His OPS is .962. Incredible.
-Bryce Harper hit his 19th home run on Sunday. He’s on pace for 37, which would be his second-most ever in a season. His OPS is .905. Incredible.
-Derek Hill’s insane catch on Friday:
-Scott Franzke’s call of the catch:
-Zack Wheeler’s reaction to the catch:
-These very nice tweets:
Plus this NL East graph:
Seeing the story of the division this year in a graph is pretty great. Look at the Phils’ line storming back upward. Look at the Braves’ line stalling out and starting to dip. Look at the Mets’ line absolutely cratering. It’s almost vertical. The orange line is shooting straight down. It’s basically touching the bottom of the graph. The graph makers are gonna have to make a whole new graph if the Mets continue playing this bad. Look at their logo; it’s barely even on the graph. It’s like one-third hanging off. The Mets are logo-isn’t-even-fully-on-the-graph terrible. Truly beautiful stuff.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com