Things were looking dicey after the Phillies visited St. Louis earlier this month. The bloom seemed to be off the Luis Arraez rose as the trade deadline acquisition had a rough series and the Phillies scored a total of one run over the final two games.
The struggles were a bit misleading, as the Phillies were getting runners on base. But they went a combined 1-15 with runners in scoring position and hit into four double plays across the two games.
Things could have gone sideways after that. The Phillies’
veteran hitters could have decided to scrap their newfound patient approach at the plate. Instead, they’ve stuck with it, and the offense has largely thrived. Since that series, the Phillies have averaged 6.5 runs per game, and not coincidentally, have won every one of them.
They’ll now welcome the Cardinals to Philadelphia, and hope that their offense can continue to get runners on base. And maybe this time around, they can avoid hitting into too many of those pesky double plays.
Opposition research: Jordan Walker
Before the season, most Phillies fans were probably unfamiliar with Jordan Walker. Despite being rated as a top five prospect, Walker had a rough first three years in the major. He put up negative WAR in each season for a grand total of -2.6 wins, and it looked like he might be a bust.
While he’s still not regarded as a good fielder, Walker’s bat has lived up to expectations this season. He’s got an OPS of .854 with 26 home runs and was named to the National League’s All-Star team. As Phillies fans know, he was part of the Home Run Derby field as well.
In one of the best Derbies ever – thanks in large part to the enthusiastic Citizens Bank Park crowd – Walker put on an amazing late run to steal the title from hometown hero Kyle Schwarber.
As expected, he was booed by the partisan crowd, but this wasn’t the type of boos that true villains like Orlando Arcia. or Francisco Lindor receive from the Philly faithful. These were more like the boos that Joe Carter always received in Philadelphia post-1993: Boos of respect. Yes, you beat us, and we’re not happy about it, but we can appreciate what you did. It didn’t hurt that his father was being delightful, and Walker seems to understand exactly why the crowd was booing him.
If Walker wants to become a true Philadelphia villain, he’ll have to do better against them than he has thus far in this career. He has a lifetime OPS of .543, although to be fair, he struggled against a lot of teams before this season. But it’s not like he hurt them badly when they faced off in St. Louis, going just 3-11.
He’s assuredly going to hear some booing from the crowd every time he steps to the plate this weekend. Let’s see if he can show that he truly deserves it.
Hating on the Cardinals
The Cardinals are hanging on in the NL Wild Card race, sitting three games out of the final spot. I guess that’s what you get when you have a slightly below average offense and a slightly above average pitching staff. This feels like one of the most .500 rosters in baseball, but being around .500 gets you right in the mix for the final playoff spot this year.
Do we really need this type of mediocre team in the playoffs? Do we really need the national television announcers raving about how wonderful the St. Louis fans are as the team gets promptly eliminated in the Wild Card series?
No, we do not.
Non-Phillies thought
WARNING: MILD SPOILERS FOR EPISODE ONE OF LANTERS
I watched the first episode of Lanterns and thought it was great. That said, I do have some concerns for the series going forward:
- The series might run into the problem where the more interesting story seemed to happen off screen. (Jupiter’s Legacy was the worst offender of this if anyone even remembers that show.) I know that this show isn’t about the adventures of Hal Jordan before he became jaded, but it feels like that might have been cool to see.
- They might Surf Dracula John Stewart as Green Lantern. He’s supposed to be a main character in the DCU going forward, but this entire series might just be set up for that.
Honestly, television kind of sucks anymore. We used to get 22-episode seasons of shows that would start promptly in September every year. Now, we get six-to-ten-episode seasons that are somehow less condensed in their storytelling, and we often have to wait a few years before the next season arrives.
Trivia
Last week’s answer: The final RBI of the 2025 regular season was a game-winning sacrifice fly by Nick Castellanos. SLDH was correct.
This week’s question: Since Citizens Bank Park opened in 2004, two Cardinals players have had two multi-home run games at the stadium. Who were they?
Additional thought about the series
I’ll be at the game on Saturday. I tried to get tickets for Friday, but because of the Kyle Schwarber bobblehead giveaway, the secondary market was extremely expensive.
Speaking of Schwarber, it would be nice if he started hitting consistently well again. He only has five home runs since the All-Star Game, and four of them came in two games. And no, this is not because the Home Run Derby “ruined his swing.” He goes through stretches like this every season where he’ll have a lot of empty plate appearances broken up by a multi-home run game.
Since I’ll be there on Saturday, I wouldn’t hate it if that multi-home run night happened then.
