Another week of taking series from their opponents and the Phillies are seeing their magic number dwindle, game by game. Not only did they help themselves, they are also getting help from other teams in their chase for the division and a bye in the first round of the playoffs.
Three up
Brandon Marsh
Marsh went 10 for 19 this past week. He’s benefitted from the stability Rob Thomson’s new outfield philosophy brings. He’s playing more often against left handed pitching. He’s just looked better overall
as a player and the team is getting better because of it. In the back of my mind, I wondered if Marsh was going to be a nontender candidate this coming offseason with his lack of success against southpaws, but at this point, the team would probably be better off giving him more chances to see if he can improve.
Harrison Bader
Bader’s energy is infectious, but had he not been hitting well, it may have come off a different way. Now that he is riding a current wave of success, his role may have taken on a whole new bit of importance. If Trea Turner is out for a long time, Bader’s right handed bat may find itself climbing in the batting order where it is truly needed.
The whole starting outfield!
I mean, the numbers speak for themselves. Nick Castellanos has taken a backseat in the rotation and that has led to success. The best players are playing more often. It’s that simple.
Who knew!
Three down
Trea Turner
This one is by no fault of his own. He’d be the leading candidate to be in the “three up” section with the week he had. But boy is that hamstring strain a bummer.
Alec Bohm
Bohm has struggled mightily of late. Since returning from the injured list, he hasn’t really done a whole lot, this week but a microcosm of this lack of success (3 for 21, one walk, six strikeouts). With Turner out, he is one of the bats that will have to start to pick it up in his stead.
Bryce Harper
Harper didn’t have a bad week per se, but there was something that caught my eye. I had a back and forth with a follower on Twitter this week, started by this comment.
I responded by taking a macro level look at his season.
In my eye, that’s not a bad argument (otherwise I wouldn’t have made it), but he came back with a good point.
He’s not wrong and this does trump my side of the coin a bit. Both points can be true: Harper, over the long term, is fine and dandy with runners on base, but man – when was the last time he got a big hit with runners in scoring position? In the end, he’s probably going to come up big for them more often than not, but it’s not pretty right now.
