- Wouldn't Bryce Harper look good in Phillies' pinstripes next year? He's an animal and a Phillie killer. He did it again Friday night, hitting two home runs in his first two at-bats, propelling Washington to their sixth straight victory, beating the Phillies 7-3. With the win, the Nationals move to only a game behind Philly for third place in NL East.
Despite the Mets hot start ( they were 11-1 at one point) and the young, exciting braves, Washington is still the team to beat in the division. With Harper destined for free agency this may be the Nats' last shot at the World Series. I picked them to make it to the series, along with Cleveland. Their starting pitching is strong, their bullpen is improved, and their offense continues to be dominant. hard to believe that Harper is actually batting lead-off. He leagues the National League with 12 homers.
Nick Pivetta lasted only an inning last night. The announcers speculated there was something wrong with Pivetta. Was he hurt or ill? Or maybe he just had a bad night against a red-hot team?
- Mykail Franco may have turned the corner- again. He now has five home runs on the season and his average is up to .270. Franco is still young and can be a cornerstone for the club. Carlos Santana also finally came out of his funk, slamming a center field homer last night.
- A question I had asked to Extra Innings, the daily Phillies email report to fans, was published yesterday. Would the Phillies be interested in Baltimore's Manny Machado? Seems like the Orioles are shopping the soon-to-be- free agent, and Atlanta is interested in Machado. He is young, can play both third base and shortstop, and is having a great year so far, hitting .360. What's not to like?
Machado would help a fringe playoff team for this season. But unless you can sign Machado long-term it would be better to wait until after the season and sign him as a free agent. Machado undoubtedly will test the market, hoping to be a $300 million buy. So getting him now, or before the July 31st trade deadline, would be only renting him and giving up coveted prospects. Baltimore has a very slim chance to re-sign Machado, so they will try to get something for Machado before he walks.
I would love seeing Machado with the Phils- but only if he is on the team for years, not just for the summer.
- The Sixers are home today for Game 3 of their playoff series with Boston. Gotta hope the coaches and players learned from their Game 2 choke, a game they gave away to go down 0-2 to the Celts. Being home and feeding off the frenzy of the fans should carry them tonight to victory. Game 4 will be a challenge, but remember that the Sixers have only lost two home games since Christmas and Boston is not a good road team.
Numbers-wise, The Celtics are 36-0 all-time in series where they have been up 2-0. The Sixers have never won a series when they were down 0-2.
The good news is that the Sixers have proven they can hang with the Celts, even in Boston. Holding serve and tying the series at 2-2 and returning to Boston is now the goal where the 76ers can take their chances and go form there.
- Ben Simmons can't play any worse. That's more good news.
- I've reassessed Game 2 and the Sixers' strategy, especially after building a 22-point lead in the first half. I agree- the Sixers needed to play smarter with the lead. They choked, and giving away a game will be hard to recapture. But to me, it's not the way the team played that was the problem. Obviously they played well to be ahead by 22 points. When do you take your foot off the gas pedal> Don't you continue to do what got you the lead? In football, you don't sit on the lead and start running the ball in the first half. Up by 22 at the end of the first half, the Sixers still had a long way to go before cruising.
The real blunder was not calling a time-out during the Celtics' run. Normally a coach will call a time-out to settle things down, kill the momentum, silence the road crowd, and calm the team down. To allow Boston to snowball their run and cut the bulge form 22 to 5 before the end of the half was a disgrace. Brett Browns' fault.Even though brown stated he would not do anything differently in the future, hopefully cooler heads prevailed and Brown reconsiders and will coach smarter.
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