PHILADELPHIA — The moment came suddenly and the message was anything but garbled. As it unfolded, the first all-clear of what had been a checkered Phillies season had resonated.
There was Bryce Harper the other night, squarely in a competition with Trea Turner for Player of the Month and celebrating another Phillies offensive outburst, casually allowing that ever-risky word to slide into the public sphere.
Starts with a P. Includes four vowels.
“This offense,” Harper allowed, “is built to outlast teams in postseason.”
So there it was, what had to be the most pleasing sound to a Phillies fan since the echo from the first catchers mitt in Clearwater: Playoff talk. Not regular-season talk. Playoff talk, plain and in the open.
Too street smart — the man is from Vegas — to deny himself a saver bet, Harper resisted breaking out a vintage Ryan Howard “Red October” undershirt for the announcement. With the way Craig Kimbrel is melting down, it was probably for the best. So he carefully mixed in this: “We’ve had a great month, but we have a lot of baseball to play.” Either way, there was no denying his optimism at the crack of Labor Day Weekend. And why shouldn’t there be?
Blessed with such a favorable one-month schedule that it had to have been formulated by a high-major college football coach, the Phillies basically had done it again. Even with a 10-8 loss to the Angels Wednesday, they had used the month to effectively secure their postseason spot, pulling far enough in front to expect one of the three Wild Card berths. Technically, they will need to count down some magic number until they can over-do a celebration for not finishing first in their division. But that will come with enough time left in September for Rob Thomson to set his rotation for the playoffs.
It’s happening.
Alert the cyber-scalpers.
There have been too many moments — there was even a no-hitter tossed in there — to declare a season turning point. But the most recent, and the one that seemed to jolt the supreme clubhouse leader to make his pronouncement, came during a Tuesday triumph. In it, L.A. manager Phil Nevin, up two runs with Nick Castellanos on second in the sixth, intentionally walked Harper to bring up Alec Bohm as the go-ahead run. It was the wrong move at the time, and it was worse seconds later when Bohm planted a pitch 20 rows into the left-center seats.
There is not likely an analytic on such things — yet who knows, they will make one of those up for anything — but any regular visitor to the Phillies clubhouse can assert with confidence that nothing irritates Bohm more than a hint that he’s about to fail. Bohm kept calm afterward, insisting that because it was Harper who was walked, he did not take offense. Harper, though, recognized the danger of disrespecting anyone in a batting order with no potholes.
“It’s a great lineup,” he said. “If it is the guy hitting in front of me or behind me, they are going to keep swinging the bat.” With that, he elaborated on how it was the kind of attack that will be a handful in the you-know-what-season, which, of course, was how it was designed.
“If you walk Harper, it’s respect for Harper,” Thomson said. “It’s not disrespect to Alec. It’s just a deep lineup. So pick your poison.”
Heading into the season, and even through starts of 4-9 and 23-27 and many nights of struggle just to wiggle safely above .500, that was the idea. At least it was financed that way, with the cash John Middleton dumped on Harper, Turner, Castellanos, Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto. But it has been the wild cards in that hand — Bohm, Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh — who have made made it truly a vintage, 1990s American League power assembly line.
Since Stott and Bohm were both relatively high draft picks, they were expected to surface as heavy contributors. But they have spent the season hitting for average and power and playing fantastic defense. With that, and with a six-ply pitching rotation and an OK bullpen, the Phillies are likely to finish with the third best record in the National League. That will give them an all-home-game first-round test, and a good chance to return to the World Series.
Then, Rhys Hoskins could be added to the mix, deepening a lineup that barely needed deepening.
“The lineup takes a lot of pressure off our pitchers,” said Michael Lorenzen, after his OK but choppy start was boosted Tuesday by the bats. “It feels nice to give up four runs and still be able to smile because we won the game. Now, I can go to sleep and feel good instead of tossing and turning all night thinking about the game. Kudos to the offense.”
It’s an offense that could receive even more kudos in the postseason. Bryce Harper says so.
Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@delcotimes.com
Source: Berkshire mont
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