Now or Never for Phillies Playoff Hopes
As I write this the Phillies sit 5 games back from the Atlanta Braves in the race to be crowned NL East champion. The crown, I believe is made out of that foil that is used to cover cadbury cream eggs. I have seen some terrible baseball this year, as have you dear reader. I have also seen some amazing baseball. Zack Wheeler being possessed by Roy Hallady’s spirit like Whoopi Goldberg at the end of Ghost on 8/8 stands out as a top ten moment from the past decade of Phillies baseball, let alone the past season. So where does this leave us? Do they have any shot in hell?
Sure, why not? Otherwise why keep watching? (Masochism and self loathing.)
Both teams have 38 games remaining. While the Braves do have nice 5 game cushion, they are facing a considerably tougher schedule than the Phils. In particular the next 8 games for the Braves look to be very stiff competition. They face three of the hottest teams in baseball one after another. The Yankees, then the Giants, and finally the Dodgers. Those three teams have a combined .617 winning percentage. Being a simpleton, I’ll suppose those teams can do the bare minimum and beat the Braves 2 out of every three games. There is a very real imaginary scenario in my mind where the Braves have lost 6 of 8 and the Phillies have swept the Diamondbacks and the Nationals heading into the first week of September and are storming back into the lead in the NL East.
Fantastical dream numbers aside, it is important to note that the Phillies team heading into September is different than the one that fell apart like a wet napkin throughout August. Sure their series in Petco Park against the Padres featured the most bizarre soul crushing loss to date in a season chock full of blown saves, but they ultimately won that series. That’s got to mean something. (It may well mean absolutely nothing.)
The return of Rhys Hoskins in the middle of the lineup has already paid dividends in his single game back so far. For whatever reason his bat in the lineup seems to take a lot of pressure off the other guys. It appears to be some kind of service animal situation, only in this case the service animal is a lumbering First Baseman. (Honestly I’m not sure how well it bodes for this team that their sparkplug is a guy with a groin injury that had trouble fielding before that injury, but I digress.)
Back to my earlier question: Do they have any shot? Yes. Will they do it? I hope so, but I also have seen enough of this team to know they’ll probably get swept by the Marlins in their final season series and finish 4 games out of 1st and just miss out on the wildcard.
