Every baseball team will have winning and losing streaks. The roulette wheel will eventually spin on to the most hapless for a week or 10 days because the season is too long. It used to be that you didn't pay much attention to it, because the point of baseball was the whole landscape and not just snapshots. The Dodgers had a 106-win season in 2007. In 2003 the tigers won four in a row and five of six times.
Big winning streaks do matter now that the playoffs have sullied that landscape even more. A good month can vault you into the conversation of a wild-card spot, while a bad one can put you out of the running. The Braves played well for six weeks and then the playoffs. Some of that was aided by a group of people. Thanks to the owners of the River Styx, you can always find one of those.
It's possible that you could be the Philadelphia Eagles right now.
Good stuff for the Phightins. They have won 10 of 11 since they dumped the walking report on Joe. It was capped by a stirring comeback, walk-off win last night over the Marlins when they were able to survive a pitcher's duel between the Phils'Aaron Nola. They were joined by Miami's Sandy Alcantara. For a team that contains the most slapstick outfield defense seen in ages that is also equipped with a bullpen full of confused sloths, the only way to win is to hit the ball into the home run zone. They have scored 67 runs in these 10 victories.
The work has been done by the top of the order with some help from the bottom. In the month of June, Kyle Schwarber has a wrc+ greater than 175. There have been 10 homers in 11 June games.
They have been taking turns driving in Bryson Stott, who has a June wrc+ of 172. When the lineup turns over, the top three hitters have taken turns driving him in, usually at a jogging pace. After coming back from an injury, Didi and Odubel contributed a lot.
The rotation has been great for the Phils, and they may be afraid of going to the pen. In three starts, Nola has not walked a single person. There have been at least five other starts by the three pitchers, which has left little or no relief for the pen. With the lightened workload, the Philly pen has a 3.88 earned run average.
The problem has now arisen. The streak only got the Phils one game over.500, they still trail the Mets by 8.5 games, and are 3.5 games out of a wild-card spot. The Braves have won 12 in a row and are 3.5 games ahead of Philadelphia, which isn't even the best streak in the division.
None of the teams that are chasing the Braves, Brewers, Giants, and Padres had to hit the nitrous tank in order to make the playoffs. The teams are not counting on unsustainable factors staying there.
Is it okay to like what? The percentage of fly balls that will end up as homers isn't as high as it has been this month. The career mark for Hoskins is.270, but he won't run a.370. In June, the mark was.420. Stott has been able to cut his K-rate to 15 percent the past two weeks, but has run a percentage in the 20s throughout his minor-league career and is still chasing offspeed and breaking pitches at the same rate as he was all season which has lead to a season w Soon, he will be seeing more of those. The worst Outs Above Average in MLB is -22, and the Phils will still treat any batting ball as if it was a flubber. The Philadelphians have had a standard defense in June but will never maintain that. The rotation can only last so long.
In this wasteland, thanks to the schedule, every team is going to find a pocket where all they see are lost and confused. The Angels were on the verge of collapse when the Phillies found them. The five games against the Nationals later in the week will keep that going for the Phils. The month ends with a Padres-Braves gauntlet, followed by nine games against the Cards and Blue Jay.
It has been enjoyable and more entertaining than watching the debacle that they served up. Unless they can win at least 30 of 35, it won't count. That is probably not going to happen given how their outfield looks at line drives and fly balls.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
