The day after the Phillies became the first MLB team to reach 60 victories, they cruised to a 5-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers and a sweep of a three-game series between the top two teams in the National League.
That put the Phils on a ridiculous pace to win a franchise-record 106 games. It also made knuckleheads of critics who accused them of feasting on weak opposition to win almost 66 percent of their games.
The Dodgers certainly are hurting without injured superstar Mookie Betts, yet still are the second-best team in the league. Except for a late flurry in the second game of the series, they didn’t match up with a Phillies team with its share of injuries but that just keeps rolling. By the way, the Phillies hadn’t swept the Dodgers since 2011.
While it’s only July, not even the All-Star break, there is no denying how talented the Phillies are. The starting lineup is formidable. The starting pitching is to die for. Seven Phillies made the N.L. All-Star team, more than the rest of the NL East combined and another franchise record.
The Phillies’ bullpen has been a pleasant work in progress. If you had any doubts, you simply had to watch Matt Strahm’s dramatic punchout of Shohei Ohtani in a high-leverage situation Wednesday that opened eyes nationally.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson is so comfortable with the analytics approach that it’s as if he has the team in radar cruise control button. And let’s not forget the unsung hero.
Cut to the motion picture Moneyball: “Dombrowski on line 3.” That is a gritty, testosterone-filled part of the dialogue from the popular baseball flick in which Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, traded Carlos Pena to the Detroit Tigers, who were GM’d by David Dombrowski. The deal actually happened.
After the “Dombrowski on line 3” dialogue, the receptionist telling Billy Bean that Dombrowski is returning his call,. it’s tough to approach the cheerful and almost always smiling Dombrowski without breaking into a grin. Truth be told, it rarely gets old to hear his part in Moneyball.
Dombrowski never actually was on screen finalizing the trade with Beane. Near the end of the call, Beane demanded that Dombrowski expense the A’s clubhouse soda machine, the latter a sore spot with the players.
“I don’t want my guys paying for soda,” Beane told Dombrowski. “I want you to stock my machine for three years. I’m serious.”
If Dombrowski has said it once, he’s said it a thousand times: There was no truth to the soda machine stuff, chalking that up to Hollywood. But Dombrowski was honored to be in the flick that required him to sign releases, including one in which he declined residual revenue.
What Dombrowski has done building the Phillies into a power is every bit as entertaining as his bit part in Hollywood. In the annals of Philly sports, it’s as jaw-dropping as Howie Roseman and assistant GM Joe Douglas putting the Eagles’ 2017 Super Bowl LII championship team together. The MVP of that Super Bowl, for those who missed Philly-Philly and Tom Brady’s post-game handshake snub, was backup quarterback Nick Foles.
Though early, it looks like Dombrowski has created a masterpiece. In my 43 years of covering sports in the area, this Phillies team easily is more talented than the others I’ve seen or covered.
The offensive power is legendary, a batting order featuring Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Alec Bohm, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos and Brandon Marsh. Injured catcher JT Realmuto barely has been missed. No team has a collection of starting pitchers performing better than the Phils, the cast of Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suarez and Cristopher Sanchez just flat-out killing it night after night.
While the Phillies could use a proven closer, Thomson is getting the job done with a committee of relievers ranging from Jose Alvarado to Jeff Hoffman to Gregory Soto. And let’s not forget Strahm, whose slider tailed so drastically Wednesday that Ohtani nearly lost his helmet on the swing-and-miss. Ohtani could not leave the field without watching replays of his whiff on PhanaVision. There were runners at first and third in the seventh inning of what would become a 4-3 victory by the Phillies. The depth is everywhere on this team.
“It’s not just going to be one or two guys,” Schwarber, who belted his 19th home run of the season Thursday, told NBC Sports Philly. “It’s going to be one through 13 guys on the bench. And if you look down in Triple A, you have guys who probably could be on a lot of big league rosters and could be playing a significant amount of time. I think it’s fortunate for us that we’re able to have that kind of talent. You can go up and down (the roster), people stepping up.”
In Moneyball, Beane had an affinity for journeyman Scott Hatteberg, who had arm problems but the ability to get on base. Anybody who has seen the movie double-digit times like moi can visualize Hatteberg’s pinch-hit, walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning extending the A’s win streak to a record 20 games. It’s a kid’s dream come true.
With the Phillies, management has any number of role players who can be their Hatteberg thanks to Dombrowski. In or out of the movies, the man is always on “line 3” scouring for depth.
To contact Bob Grotz, email rgrotz@delcotimes.com.
Source: Berkshire mont
Be First to Comment