Phillies built for long ball but finding ample ways to produce early on.
The Phillies didn’t have their World Series invitation in hand last October, but they had reason to believe it was at least out for delivery. Their hitters were raking, their pitchers were dominating and they needed just one win in two games at home, where they’d been practically invincible to dismiss the Diamondbacks in the NLCS and capture the National League pennant for the second year in a row.
Everybody knows what happened next. Arizona won Game 6. Arizona won Game 7. Suddenly, shockingly, the Phillies were left with an empty feeling and hard questions about a gift card that had gone uncashed.
The answer is both simple and complex. At the most elemental level, they were beaten because the lineup suddenly went ice cold. It happens. It especially happens to teams that rely too heavily on home runs to score. Power is notoriously fickle. It tends to come and go as it pleases.
In those final two games, the Phillies were a combined 11-for-63 (.174). They scored a total of three runs. And, significantly, they got just one homer, a solo shot from Alec Bohm in the final game. That from a team which, to that point, had blasted 17 homers in 11 games while averaging 5.6 runs per game.
That was last year.
This season, as the Phillies rest in preparation for a three-game series against the defending world champion Texas Rangers beginning Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park, they’re mashing again and also getting excellent pitching. So it’s not surprising that they have the best record in baseball.
It’s a statistical jungle out there. It can be difficult to hack through all the undergrowth and figure out what really matters. But here are some number that seem interesting. With almost a third of the season completed, the Phils are first in all of baseball with 256 runs scored. . .and 35.5 percent of them have come on homers.
