Friday, June 29, 2018

PHILLY SPORTS CORNER- PHILLIES

- The Phillies won a big game last night, taking Game 1 of a 4-game  weekend series vs the Nationals at Citizens Bank Park. Aaron Nola won his 10th game. Siranthony Dominguez saved his 6th game of the season. The team is now sandwiched between the Braves and the Nationals, two games behind Atlanta for 1st place and two games ahead of Washington. Great chance for the Phils to bury the Nats  as the Braves start a brutal 10-game road trip tonight in St. Louis.

- Nola threw 114 pitches but will get an extra day off on Monday. He will pitch against the lowly Orioles on Tuesday night.

- Dominguez is great but if do-nothing GM Matt Klentak doesn't get bullpen help soon, Siranthony will be toast by the end of the summer. Inglesia ( Cincinnati), Hand ( San Diego) and Britton (Baltimore) are closers that should be available. Obviously, Kapler doesn't trust anyone else in that horrible bullpen. Tommy hunter got shelled Thursday night, failing to close a game in which he had a 3-run lead. He has been a free agent bust. Pat Neshek should help soon. But he is strictly a set-up guy, pitching the 7th and 8th innings. Anything to allow Dominguez only pitch one inning- the 9th inning- as a closer.

- Rhys Hoskins continues to be hot since returning from a fractured jaw. He hit his 13th home run of the season, Right now he is flourishing in the No. 2 hole, but I see him as a legitimate clean-up hitter in time. If he stays hot will he make his first All-Star team?

-An old adage in baseball is the team in first place at the All-Star break generally goes onto the World Series.With divisional play it's not as certain. But many years when the Phillies went on to win National League east- including 1976, 1993, 2008, 2009 and 201. the club was on top of the division come All-Star time. So, the next few weeks will be key, as well as what Klentak will do to improve the team going into the July trade deadline. Interestingly enough, the year the Phillies won their first world championship, 1980, the team was not in first place at the All-Star break. In fact, they weren't in first even on September 1st.

As the All-Star break draws near I'll have more information and statistics about being in first place at the break.

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