Being in the Philadelphia area right now, full of very reactive, goldfish-brained Philly sports fans, I have to do a lot of explaining that causation does not always equal correlation. The Phillies have not won nine straight JUST BECAUSE they fired Joe Girardi. There are other elements at play. Elements that a lot of people were choosing not to believe.
I wish I could understand the Philadelphia mentality that everything wrong with a sports team has to do specifically with the head coach and nothing else. Fire Pederson, fire Doc, fire Girardi. It's not like Nick Sirianni has changed things dramatically. And look, I'll go to my grave not understanding the Doc Rivers hate. "It's cause he wants to go to the Lakers and win there", hey remember when LeBron James almost signed with the Sixers? You think if he'd signed here and we had a down playoff year you'd say the same thing about him?
I just...really get exhausted by Philly sports fans sometimes. It's like having a friend who has a history of girls dumping him and you hear him turn down a perfectly good conquest because he's afraid of getting burned again. Like, we won't know that til you actually do something!
Right. Anyway. Phils have won 9 in a row. Couldn't be happier for 'em.
I felt so bad for this team during the losing streak. Great hitting performances and great starting pitching foiled by awful defense and bad decisions. It wasn't fun to watch, and it wasn't fun to live around, so I'm kind of glad that they actually dropped Girardi so everyone around here could stop talking about 'when are they gonna fire Girardi?'. They do something, they yield results, I hope they keep doing so.
One of the stars of the Phillies' rise to glory has been Zack Wheeler, who's been heating up in the last few weeks, including an incredible start yesterday, allowing 2 hits in 6 innings, as well as striking out 8 Diamondbacks. It was a game my dad was lucky enough to be at, and even he couldn't believe how good Wheeler looked- I saw him pitch at the beginning of last month and he was, while good, not by any means 2021 quality. Now he's getting back to his sweet spot, and I couldn't be happier to see it. Wheeler, Nola, Eflin, Suarez and Gibson are all providing solid results this year, and it's good to see the rotation in decent shape for once [maybe because we got rid of Vince Velasquez]. Hoskins had a two homer day the other day, now Castellanos is hitting, Schwarber's HR total is going up, Harper's still hitting .300, and Bryson Stott's bat is beginning to come alive.
This team is beginning to reach the levels of potential they've always had, and I wish it didn't just take plugging in Rob Thomson in order to realize this. I hope they can keep it up. Winning 9 games in a row is tough, and hopefully they can keep this level of momentum going. Because the Braves are streaking too, and with far less than we have.
Coming Tonight: A skinny dude who throws fire.
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