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Phillies Silver Lining: A Lot of MLB Teams are Playing Like Butt Right Now
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The Phillies got walloped 14-4 by the Yankees on Monday night. Once Matvei Michkov threw out the first pitch it was all downhill from there. Nothing good happened and there’s nothing worth talking about from this game.
Silver lining, however, is that the Phils remain 8.5 games ahead of the Braves for the division lead and continue with the best record in baseball.
It’s not necessarily reassuring to point out that “everyone else kind of sucks right now,” but it’s the truth. There really aren’t many MLB teams that have been playing particularly well over the past two weeks. The Mets are 7-3 over their last 10 and attempting to salvage their season, which we all know will end in a soul-crushing collapse. Milwaukee is on a nice run of form and the Dodgers, Padres, and D Backs are all 7-3 over their last 10.
Some other teams over their last 10 games:
- Orioles: 4-6
- Yankees: 5-5
- Red Sox: 3-7
- Guardians: 5-5
- Twins: 4-6
- Royals: 6-4
- Astros: 5-5
- Mariners: 4-6
- Braves: 3-7
- Pirates: 6-4
- Cardinals: 4-6
There’s a lot of average-to-mediocre baseball being played. If you want to look back a little further, the Phillies swept the Dodgers before the All-Star Break. LA is 7-3 over their last 10 but 2-3 in their last five. San Diego’s good run included a three-game sweep of the pitiful Nats, and Arizona got the Cubs, Royals, and Pirates coming out of the break. Milwaukee just lost two of three at home to Miami.
So yeah, the Phils need to get their shit together. They’re also playing one of the toughest stretches of their schedule. Two more against the Yank stank and then a 10-game road swing against three teams above .500. The way they’ve come out of the break has been uber-disappointing, but it hasn’t been dissimilar from years past. In 2023 they lost 6 of 11 coming out of the All-Star break and in 2022 they were swept by the Cubs to begin the second half.
We’ve seen this movie before. Hopefully this year it’s a short film and not Oppenheimer in length. This is my attempt at making people feel better.
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