The Phillies caught a break by not getting the great Mets pitcher Jacob deGrome Sunday afternoon. Because of the rainy weather new York scratched deGrome in favor of a marginal hurler.
In the midst of a pennant race, needing to win the game to finally take a series for the first time in over a month, the Phillies again came up small and lost. Vince Valasquez came up small again. The hitters weren't clutch. Fundamentals remained poor.
The Braves won 3 of 4 in Arizona and moved to 4 1/2 games ahead pf Philadelphia in NL East. Washington is closer to the Phils than the Phillies are to Atlanta. The 7 games remaining with the Braves are soon to be meaningless. Plus the Phillies have 4 in Colorado yet, the same Rockies who are playing well and are in 1st place in NL West.
So why have the Phillies collapsed since July? They didn't want it bad enough.
Instead of Machado, Hamels and Murphy, we got Bour, loop and Bautista ( I give them credit for getting Ramos,who has been limited).
The front office again overrated their own players. Their young starters hit a wall. Their fundamentals sucked all year. They struck-out too much all year and didn't ply enough small ball. They never had a real closer. Their manager never had a consistent line-up and depended on analytics too much since Opening Day.
In the end the front will say "Look at our record- we improved." Middleton won't fire anyone. We will see if they sign any significant free agents or make any real trades of note.
We still don't know if Kinery, Quinn, Altherr or Williams can play everyday. Herrera and Franco remain enigmas. We are stuck with Arrieta and Santana due to their contracts.
Do you have any faith in the so-called brain-trust to fix the problems/ Why should the fans buy tickets in 2019?
***********************************************************************
As it looks like the Braves will win the National League, what about the other races as we head into mid-September?
Milwaukee is suddenly making a late charge back at the Cubs. St. Louis, always dangerous, are within striking distance but are probably too far out to win the division in NL Central.
In the NL West, Colorado has wrestled 1st place away from Arizona and Los Angeles. I really thought the Diamondbacks had the best team out west until they lost 3 of 4 to Atlanta this weekend at home.
The wild card race in the NL will come down to the wire, with the Central loser, the Dodgers, Rockies and Diamondbacks all in contentions. The Phillies have too many teams to jump over at this point.
In the American League, Boston continues to cruise in the East. The Yankees ans A's are pretty much locked in for the wild card game in New York. Winner gets the Red Sox- good luck there.
In the Central, it's been Cleveland all the way. Looks like they will play the West winner in the postseason. Is till think the Indians upset both the Boston and Astros and make it to the World Series.
Out west, Houston is holding off Oakland and should prevail. Seattle made a valiant run most of the summer but are now slipping.
No comments:
Post a Comment