Credit: John Jones/Imagn Images
The Phillies came into last week preparing for their biggest series of the season, a four-game series against the New York Mets, with their magic sitting at 13. Since then, the Phillies would go on to sweep the Mets, take two out of three from the Kansas City Royals, and now sit just one game away from clinching the NL East for consecutive seasons. The last time the Phillies did that was in 2010-2011.
NL East Dominance
As of today, the Phillies are 89-61, 12 games up on the New York Mets (77-73) for first place in the NL East, which is something I didn’t expect to write this season. I truly believed the Mets would be competitive and the NL East would be close for the majority of the season. However, the Mets have played dreadful baseball in September and just snapped an eight-game losing streak yesterday.
As for the Phillies, they are playing their best baseball of the season right now. The pitching looks great, the offense looks better despite the Phillies missing both Trea Turner and Alex Bohm this week, and the bullpen has found its rhythm. They have found different ways to win games, not just relying on the offense or pitching. Some nights, the pitching staff looks incredible when the offense doesn’t, and vice versa. This team looks like a team built to win in the postseason, and the Phillies are just 12 games away from starting another attempt at a World Series run. The Phillies head out west for six games before returning home for a six-game home stand to close out the season.
The Phillies currently sit as the two seed in the National League but are only two games behind the Milwaukee Brewers (91-59) as the one seed. If the Phillies could clinch home-field advantage throughout the entire playoffs, that would make me feel much better entering the postseason.
Bader Leading Off
Once the Phillies announced that Trea Turner was going on the IL, I was unsure who the Phillies would bat leadoff. In last week’s article, I discussed the potential for Stott or Bader to step into that role. In the first game, Rob Thomson went with Bryce Harper in the leadoff spot, which was questionable and rightfully so. In the next game, Rob put Bader at the leadoff spot, and it clicked. In his first game batting leadoff, Bader went 3/5 with a home run against his former team, the New York Mets. Thomson kept Bader in the leadoff spot for the remainder of the week, and boy, did it work. Bader had a great week and has had an even better start to his Phillies career. Bader has a .349 BA with a .940 OPS in 38 games played for the Phillies. Not only has he delivered offensively, but defensively, he’s been great as well. Bader has made some really impressive grabs in the outfield, and for the first time in a while, it feels like the Phillies have found their centerfielder.
Dave Dombrowski did an incredible job this trade deadline, not only acquiring Harrison Bader but also Jhoan Duran, who has continued to pitch great for us as the closer. The Phillies added a legit CF and closer and now look like a team primed to make some noise in the postseason.
Two Weeks Remain
The Phillies kick off their final road trip of the season tonight, as they open up a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers (84-65), a team that’s fighting to clinch the NL West. This series could also be a potential playoff matchup. The Dodgers have had a down year compared to where everyone expected them to be. Injuries have hit them hard, and the pitching isn’t what they had hoped. The Phillies always seem to play well at Dodger Stadium, so wins in 2/3 games seem likely. They have an off day on Thursday before they play a three-game weekend series against the Arizona Diamondbacks (75-75).
The Phillies need just one more win on the season to clinch the NL East, and I like their odds to do it tonight at 10:10 EST with Ranger Suarez on the mound.
Weekly Predictions
Not only do the Phillies win the NL East this week, but they also overtake the Milwaukee Brewers for the one seed in the National League.
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