Ok, the Phillies have jumped aboard another multi-game winning streak which is at 5 games right now. Last night was rained out due to the remants of Hurricane Ida making it’s way North, but the night before last on the last day of August, the team beat the Washington Nationals with a rag-tag bunch of pitchers and some good old-fashioned hitting as they outslugged the Nats by a 12-6 score.
The Phillies are now 68-64 on the year, in second place in the NL East. They will have to win the division it appears if they have a chance to make the playoffs but they have narrowed the gap for a wildcard spot, and today they are 2.5G out from doing that, as the Atlanta Braves have started to stumble in the month of September. The Braves are at the LA Dodgers, and the Blue Crew are taking it to them as the Dodgers have been running the table out in the NL West, just taking first place in that division after the Giants have held the top spot seemingly all season.
Embed from Getty ImagesBryce Harper has been feasting on the Nationals like a great white shark so far this year, he is hitting .419 with 7 HR and 14 RBI. He had 3 hits last night, as the Phillies and the Nationals will wrap up the series at 1:05 PM down at Nationals Park in DC. The Phillies as a team have really mastered the Nationals this season and they lead the season series 8-1 at Nats Park going into today’s game(12-6 in the season series before today’s game). The Phillies turned in a blistering 17-11 August this year overall.
Embed from Getty ImagesTaking a look at the top Phillies players of 2021 on Baseball-Reference.com, Ranger Suarez has seen his stock ride high as he has taken over the number 3 position in that ranking with a 3.7 WAR following team leader, Zack Wheeler at 6.1 WAR and Bryce Harper at 4.3 WAR. Ranger is really having a great season, he has a 6-4 record with 1.48 ERA in 33 games so far this year (appearing as a starter in 6 of those games).
The best thing to happen to this Phillies pitching staff is to lose the services to the IL list of Zach Eflin and Vince Velasquez in my opinion. If you read this blog, you’ll have known that I am not a big fan of either of these pitchers. Stick around for another edition of the Phillies Talk Podcast, I am trying to get a new one in the can for tomorrow so stay tuned!
