The Philly magic may be done. They really needed to win all games started by Wheeler and Nola to have much of a chance. Their lack of pitching depth and defensive limitations may sink them now. We will see.
Super bizarre take. They are about to have 3 home games and Wheeler for game 6. Their starting pitching was 3rd in baseball in 6ip 2er or less. They also didn’t win Wheeler’s start against Atlanta and smoked them. I could see this going either way, but suggesting they’re in trouble because they didn’t win the first 2 games on the road is odd.
Agreed - people always seem to react to things based on 1 game. Baseball is a sport with very little momentum and teams sweep other good teams all the time - even if a team is down 1-3, they can easily come back to win a series. Obviously it's not ideal, but winning 3 in a row happens all the time in this sport. Astros almost came back from 3-0 against the Rays in 2020.
Yeah, nothing about yesterday makes me think the Phillies are done. It’s possible, but winning 2/3 in Philadelphia is going to be really tough for SD. Not to mention nothing about the Phillies run is logical. They’ve been hot and their best hitter is on fire.
I have to wear this one. My bad. My initial ASSUMPTION based on looking at stats previously ( trade deadline) and watching the series vs Astros to end the season was that Phillies are very weak in the bullpen and starting pitching beyond Wheeler and Nola. Upon actual current research their pitching is much closer to middle pack than bottom. I still think Padres have the advantage but it's not nearly as big as I thought.
There's something like 9 starting OFers in the 99th percintile of bad, and the Phillies have 2 of them. Something to watch for.
Come on, all the Phillies OFs are better defensively than Soto, and Soto got nominated for a Gold Glove.
Who do we think we root for in the NLCS? Padres seem more talented but Philly seems hot and we have trouble with hot NL East teams in the World Series.
For my part I am rooting for the Phillies so I do not have to try to stay up till all hours to see the away games.
They don't start World Series games at 7pm PST. It'll be 5 or 5:30 PST which is 7 or 7:30 CST for all the games.
