Life comes at you fast in the World Series. Just three days ago, the Philadelphia Phillies were on top of the world, having turned Game 3 into their own personal homecoming party with a 7-0 shellacking of the Houston Astros. But that was before Houston turned the tables: First, a combined no-hitter in Game 4, […]
On paper, this year’s World Series between the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies looks like a gigantic mismatch. The Astros won 106 games during the regular season, with a plus-219 run differential, 57.7 wins above replacement and a 1589 Elo rating; the Phillies won 87 with a plus-62 differential, 42.0 WAR and a 1547 Elo. […]
As the calendar flipped from May to June, the Philadelphia Phillies looked absolutely dead in the water. Despite boasting MLB’s fourth-highest payroll and a World Series-pedigreed manager in Joe Girardi, Philadelphia was 21-29 on June 1, eight games under .500 and 12½ games back in the National League East. In a recurring problem, its bullpen […]
The Philadelphia Phillies were expected to be one of the worst defensive teams in baseball this season, with enough errors to fill a weekly blooper reel. That made it all the more surprising on Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia that a baseball team lost on a routine defensive miscue … and it wasn’t the Phillies. So […]
Last season provided baseball fans with a ton of memorable storylines, moments and individual accomplishments. But one of the more puzzling aspects of 2021 was a lack of alignment between star performances and successful teams. For just the ninth time in history (and the first time since 1987), both leagues’ MVPs — Shohei Ohtani in […]