Shohei Ohtani (formerly the Ohtani & Trout Traveling Baseball Revue, aka the Los Angeles Angels) debuted at Citizens Bank Park Monday night. Most of the pre-game chatter centered on the exploits of the greatest two-way player in the history of the game, and he lamented that a torn Champions League in his elbow meant he would hit, but not throw, the ball in the Series. We also regret that superstar Mike Trout, the pride of Millville NJ, will not appear against the Phillies as he is back on the injured list.
Then the big clock in midfield chimed at 6:43pm and I threw the first pitch and everything changed.
The Phillies hit three more home runs, two by shortstop Trea Turner and one by Bryce Harper’s batter, to hijack the story line and give the Phillies a 6-4 victory over the Hallows in front of a reported crowd of 38,142.
The Phillies have now hit their season-high 15 games above . 500 at 73-58 and enjoy a comfortable lead in the National League wild card standings. Speaking of which. . .
“If you have to pick a World Series winner, I always pick a wild card team,” Turner said. “Because you have to play really well for the last month or two weeks, whatever it is, and then go into the post-season.
“You see it year after year. It doesn’t always happen but it seems like year after year there’s a wild card team that goes really far in the postseason and it’s really dangerous. Wild card teams are scary. Not that anyone can’t win them, from “Obviously. But to become a wild card team you have to play really well at the end of the year. We feel like we’re a dangerous team. We played well and we have to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Turner might be on to something. When he won the World Series with the national team in 2019, Washington made the tournament a wild card. The Phillies made it to Game 5 of the Fall Classic despite being the last NL team to be ticketed.
In all, since the Wild Card’s inception in 1995, there have been seven non-division winners (Marlins in 1997 and 2003, Angels in 2002, Red Sox in 2004, Cardinals in 2011, Giants in 2014 and Turner’s Nats) who have gone on to win it all. Seven other teams advanced to the World Series before losing out.
And while there are still five weeks left in the regular season, the Phillies have been legitimately hot for three months now. Since June 2, they’re 48-26, which has a winning percentage of 0.649.
One reason for their recent success is that, after a slow start, they are starting to hit home runs closer to the pace many envisioned going into the season. With two games left in August, they shot 51 bombs, breaking the previous franchise record.
Of course, pitching is key in the playoffs. And after five batters in Monday night’s game, the Angels were ahead. Really, would anyone have been surprised? It was the seventh time in the Phillies’ last nine home games that a starting pitcher has given up at least one run in the top of the first.
This time it was Taejuan Walker, who opened the game by hitting first baseman Nolan Chanwell with a pitch and then allowing a sharp single up the middle to Ohtani. Walker came close to getting out of trouble, but shortstop Luis Rengifo scored Chanwell’s goal.
This led to the Phillies Alumni Association portion of the Angels’ standings, and former top prospects Mickey Moniak and Logan Ohope, both of whom were traded to Halos on August 2, 2022 in transactions that acquired Brandon Marsh and right-hander Noah Syndergaard.
Moniak hit a bases-loading and O’Hoppe followed by ripping a vicious single hopper—102.6 mph out speed—to a shortstop that Turner made a great play and threw out at first.
Not only has the Shei Hey Kid taken control of the game, and he is capable of doing so, but the Phillies have also made sure he’s accounted for every time he steps into the left-handed batter’s box.
In the fourth he came up with two outs and runners on second and third and was intentionally walked but not before Walker threw three throws out of the area in a futile attempt to get him to punt. In the sixth inning, despite having two batters and none, manager Rob Thompson replaced Walker right-hander with left-hander Matt Stram, who got the hit.
With Gregory Soto on the mound in the eighth, again with the bases empty and two out, he defied lefty batters with 44 home runs already this season despite the Phillies only leading by one run. Ohtani did a 99.1 mph up and in and was grounded on the right side.
Walker, to borrow a phrase from former Phillies broadcaster Chris Wheeler, danced among the raindrops throughout his fifth and third innings. He gave up eight hits. Two walked, one intentionally. He hit the batter. And he still managed to give up only three runs while stranding nine runners, five of them in the scoring position.
On the plus side, he’s kept his speed pretty much since his previous start on August 22nd and that’s the first sign the Phillies are looking for these days.
Prior to that outing, he’d had nine days off to hope his arm would bounce back, and he was delighted when his 4-seam fastball averaged 93 and was 91.7 deep. Monday night his four-seamer averaged 92.2 and his dunks were 92.3 according to Baseball Savant.
With plenty of time left in the regular season and all the booby traps the playoffs contain, there are plenty of teams that could lift the big trophy this season. But Phillies is definitely one of them.
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