Ranger Rover

 

June was a very good month for the Phillies, though maybe not the ones you'd expect. Typically June is Kyle Schwarber's month, and while his numbers upticked slightly, he's still not exactly torching the league like he was last year. The people that have carried the torch for the Phillies were people who had been mostly absent the previous months, like Ranger Suarez, or people that had struggled the previous months, like Craig Kimbrel and Taijuan Walker. 

Suarez doing well in general isn't exactly a shocker. Since his breakthrough season in 2021, Suarez has been consistent, steady and solid as a mid-rotation arm. In an alternate universe, Suarez is an All-Star closer for us, and managed 4 saves in '21 before being moved to the rotation. Thankfully, Suarez can go well into games, and spent June completely annihilating opposing offenses, with 2 wins, a 1.08 ERA and 33 Ks in his 5 June starts. He's...admittedly not fared especially well during a JULY start, but Suarez is the exact kind of smooth consistent this team has been looking for since the 2011 rotation got split up.

Honestly, this Phillies team going forward with a rotation of Nola, Wheeler, Suarez, Walker and Cristopher Sanchez is not the worst outcome. Nola's had a few choice insane starts, and had another one earlier today against the best team in baseball. Wheeler's still incredible, and could be looking at a trip to Seattle if the ASG nods keep dropping like flies. Walker has come such a long way since his rocky start, and is 9-3 with a 3.93 ERA. Sanchez has a 3.26 ERA through his first 4 starts of the season. It's a solid bunch overall--we're all still shouting for Andrew Painter, who's still hurt, but I'm fine continuing through the heat of the season with this five. Dombrowski may get greedy later this month and try to get somebody [perhaps even dealing Sanchez to make room], but I think we should conserve our strength.

Also, Craig Kimbrel has 12 saves now, and is making up for his lousy start by being incredible in June and slowly getting Phillies fans on his good side. This is a fanbase who lambasted him when he was a Brave, and even trashed him in April, but now that the good Craig Kimbrel has shown up, we're beginning to embrace him, as we should have all along. 

The Phils have been hot lately, and us being hot while playing the Rays is an extremely good outcome. Nearly silencing the guys who've been embarrassing everybody, and ruining Zach Eflin's revenge plot? Excellent stuff. Their tour of Florida finishes up with a Marlins team that's still ahead of them in the standings, so they'll need to channel this momentum in order to get back to towards legitimacy. With this pitching, and with Bohm, Castellanos, Stott and Marsh all surging, I'm optimistic. 

Coming Tomorrow- A guy I was really thinking would be a fun All-Star selection.