* The Phillies' 2018 schedule was released yesterday. Here are the highlights and my tentitive 6-pack for next season..
* Once again, the Phils open on the road, playing in Atlanta and New York before coming home on April 5 to the home opener with Miami. The Phillies play 16 of 28 at home to begin the season, including a 10-game home stand with Pittsburgh, Arizona and Atlanta.
* Interleague games are with American League East. The Yankees come to Citizens Bank Park for the first time since the 2009 World Series, the Red Sox, Orioles and Blue Jays. Philly goes to Tampa, Boston, Toronto and Baltimore.
* Once again, the Dodgers do not play a weekend series in Philadelphia They ar ein for 3 games in late July. The Cubs again have a late season weekend series in Philly.
* The Phillies, for the fifth straight year, finish the season at home, playing the Braves.
* Here are my tentative 6-pack of games I will try to attend in 2018:
- Thursday May 10 vs Giants- I saw the Mariners on May 10 this season, a 1:00 game, and San Francisco comes in next year for an afternoon contest in 2018. SF sucks, but an early spring game, when the games still matter, will be fun. Hopefully Scott Kingery is up by then. Maybe Madison Bumgarten will pitch.
- Monday June 18 vs. Cardinals- My nephews' birthday. Plus St. Louis is always competitive. One of three old-school franchise I hope to see, along with the Dodgers and Yankees.
- Wednesday June 27 vs Yankees- Looking forward seeing Aaron Judge and co. invade CBP for the first time in 9 years. I'm sure loads on New Yorkers will come down for the three-game series. Rare appearance by the Bronx Bombers in Philly. Both teams have young squads- maybe a preview of another future Phils-Yanks World Series?
- Saturday July 21 vs Padres- San Diego also sucks but it's Photo Night. I've attended the last 3 Photo Nights and it's fun. New players such as Hoskins, Williams, Alfaro and hopefully Kingery will meet Phillie fans for the first formal time.
- Wednesday July 26 vs Dodgers- A 12:30 start against Kershaw, Bellinger and crew.
- Wednesday August 15 vs Red Sox- Saw Boston this summer. Hope to catch Chris Sale again. Tons of Red Sox fans will again try to take over our park.
Two alternate games:
- Tuesday July 3 vs Orioles and Saturday September 1 vs Cubs.
* Rhys Hoskins again starred last night in the 15-inning 9-8 win over the Marlins. Hoskins hit two homers, launching the first one into the left field upper deck. The second tied the game with two outs in the 9th inning, as Rhys blasted a home run against the brick wall backdrop in center field.
Hoskins will sooner or later crush a homer onto Ashburn Alley or hit the left field scoreboard. His swing reminds me of Mike Schmidt. He has hit 16 homers in only 32 games. Gotta wonder what he wouldv'e done if he has played in Philly the entire year.
Hoskins has 45 total home runs in 2017, 29 in Lehigh Valley and 16 in Philadelphia.
* The bullpen again was great vs. Miami on Tuesday night. But I'm still on convinced that Hector Neris is the closer of the future. make him the 8th inning set-up guy again, and try Vince Valaquez .
Odubel Herrera had 3 hits and is closing in on .300. With that, you take the good with the bad, as he again had a defensive lapse and nearly made another base running blunder. Herrera hit lead-off for the first time in a while, with Cesar Hernandez giving way to J.P. Crawford at second base.
* How's this for batting order sometime in 2018:
1. Kingery-2B
2. Crawford- SS
3. Herrera- CF
4. Hoskins- 1B
5. Williams- LF
6. Altherr- RF
7. Franco- 3B
8. Alfaro- C
Speed, power and a good mix of lefty-righty to balance the batting order.
*The word is that injured utility player Pedro Florian will be healthy for the start of spring training. Florian dislocated his ankle in a freak base running play. The Phils hope he will be OK to perhaps play second base for about six weeks until Scott Kingery is past his service time date of May 1st and will then be promoted to Philadelphia/
* The Phillies still need to win 8 of 18 games to avoid losing 100 games this season. With all but three games at home they should be able to avoid the century mark for the first time since 1961.
No comments:
Post a Comment