
At the risk of understatement, I’m going to say that the Phillies’ series in New York didn’t go well. While some fans have declared the season to be over and are either waiting for the Phillies’ “inevitable” playoff elimination, or have simply turned their attention to football, the season will in fact continue.
The first part of that continuation is a home series against the Atlanta Braves. In recent years, a series against the Braves would seem fraught with peril. But this years’ Braves are an injury-riddled
disappointment, and the series will provide the Phillies with some opposing pitching matchups that look advantageous. (On paper, at least.) The toughest pitching matchup of the series might come in the finale when they face Hurston Waldrep, the latest Braves rookie to come up and hit the ground running. He’s pitched in five games and has given up a total of three runs in 30 innings.
The first pitcher they’ll face is Cal Quantrill, which should be a familiar name for a lot of Phillies fans. His father, Paul, was traded to the Phillies in May 1994, and spent the next year and a half pitching as a very okayish starting pitcher for them before becoming an All-Star reliever for the Blue Jays.
Cal was picked eighth by the Padres in the 2016 amateur draft, and while he showed some early promise, he was sent to Cleveland as part of a nine-player trade. Looking at the players involved in the trade, I can’t really figure out what the point of it was, except that it was 2020, and the teams’ general managers might have just been bored. (A nine-player trade where the headliner is Mike Clevinger?)
Quantrill had a couple of decent-to-good seasons with the Indians before injuries ruined his 2023 season. The Indians must have been pessimistic about his future prospects, because after the season, they traded him to the Rockies for a minor league catcher who has yet to make the majors.
Believe it or not, moving to Colorado did not improve a pitcher’s performance, and after a season in which he led the National League in walks, he quickly fled as a free agent. However, the move to Miami didn’t seem to change much, and after putting up a 5.50 ERA in 24 starts, the Marlins put him on waivers.
The Braves, who at one point were down to about one healthy starting pitcher, snatched him up and put him in their rotation. His first start with them was unimpressive: 4.2 innings, 3 runs, 5 hits, and 5 walks.
The Phillies have faced him twice already this season, and tagged him for ten runs over 7.1 innings. This feels like a great opportunity for the Phillies’ bats to “get right.” On the other hand, this is the Phillies. It wouldn’t be the first time a “get right” opportunity went very wrong.
X-Men character of the series
Paul Provenzano
In the early 2000’s, Magneto attacked the X-Mansion and kidnapped Charles Xavier while most of the X-Men were unavailable for plot reasons. (Apparently, the X-Men who weren’t around didn’t think that Magneto capturing their mentor and declaring war on the rest of the world was important enough to show up for.)
Jean Grey was forced to spontaneously recruit a new team of random mutants, mostly because writer Scott Lobdell wanted to do a Giant-Sized X-Men homage.
One of the random mutants was Paul Provenzano, a mafioso wannabe who was invulnerable to physical damage. Unsurprisingly, Paul didn’t match up well with Magneto and was flung into space where he had to be rescued by Northstar. (Earlier in the story, the two almost fought due to Provenzano making homophobic comments.)
Additional thought about the series
Last series showed us that the National League East isn’t quite as wrapped up as it once seemed. But the Phillies are still in good shape, and I’d much rather be in their position than the Mets. The New Yorkers have a tough September schedule, including four games in Philadelphia. As bad as the Phillies have played in Citi Field, they’re 11-4 vs. the Mets at Citizens Bank Park since the start of 2023.
The Phillies don’t even have to worry about the Mets if they just take care of business. The Braves are doing better lately (Jurickson Profar has been on fire since his return from suspension), but this is a team they should beat, especially at home.
Even a sweep wouldn’t calm down the people who think the Phillies have been exposed as a bunch of heartless losers who never step up and are destined for failure. But for the rational fans among us, winning this series will make us feel a lot better about the team’s chances.
And if they lose the series? Football season starts next Thursday, right?