Time to panic for Phillies fans? No, and here’s why
The Phillies finally got their first win of the season last night at Yankee Stadium to improve their record to 1-4 on the season. They were the last MLB team to notch a win. Not great for the defending National League Champions, but hey, a wins a win.
Being three games out of the division lead five games into a season is not optimal. There are reasons to believe that the sky is indeed falling, that this Phillies team wont climb out of this early-season hole theyve dug for themselves. Its what we do, right? Many Philadelphia sports fans are only truly happy when theres something to bellyache about. But we are going to focus on why they will, in fact, be fine.
The Rotation Is Fine
This is not the starting rotation fans expected to see when we watched the team in Spring Training. Andrew Painter has been shelved indefinitely, but Ranger Suarez has thrown a couple bullpen sessions in the last few days with positive results.
But just like you cant expect Alec Bohm to have a 1.117 OPS the entire season, or Trea Turner to hit .391, the Phillies starters numbers as we see them cant stay like this for an entire season. The teams 7.46 staff ERA is atrocious. But the pitchers will not continue to allow nine runs a game.
The Bullpen Isnt Nearly As Bad As They Look
For as bad as the rotation has been, the bullpen has been worse. They lug a collective ERA of 9.16, next-to-worst pen in the bigs. It was 11.85 before last nights win. Average statistics are super-volatile with such a small sample size. While theyve admittedly been horrendous to this point, this bullpen on paper is among the best the Phillies have begun a season with in recent memory, featuring four pitchers with experience closing games.
They have already sent down long reliever Yunior Marte after two terrible outings, where he allowed nine baserunners and got just three outs. They replaced him with McKinley Moore, who was very impressive in Spring Training, striking out 11 in 9.1 innings and allowing just five hits.
Hittin Season Is Coming
The power will come from the bats. Theyre far too good not to. Yes, the offense has just one collective home run, yet ranks seventh in MLB in extra-base hits (20) and fourth in team batting average (.283). They certainly need a bit more patience and plate awareness going forward, as witnessed by their nine total walks (tied for last in MLB), but again, as the bats wake up, and the hitters stop pressing a bit, and the results will come.
Important to keep in mind: Rhys Hoskins is out for the season, and Bryce Harper is months away, at the very least. That has a domino effect on the entire lineup compared to what they put on the field last October, and it will take some time for hitters to acclimate to new spots in the lineup, and new responsibilities.
Schwarberfest Will Still Happen
The Phillies big bopper has started the season with one hit in 17 AB, and zero walks. Alarming numbers? Only if you have a short memory. He is a notorious slow starter. Last season he began 2-for-22, and finished April with a .169 BA and five HR through 20 games. Same guy that finished the season with a league-leading 46 bombs and 100 runs scored.
He mashed a first-inning homer last night. Feel better? Yeah, me too.
Way Too Early
As mentioned, 1-4 sucks, almost everything about it. They didnt even look good doing it. Theyve been outscored 38-to-16 thus far. But we have 97% of the regular season still left to be played. This is the equivalent of saying an NFL team is doomed to a season of failure with 14:00 left in the third quarter of the season opener. Its difficult to be patient, especially with a team with such high expectations, but consider this: the 2021 Atlanta Braves started the season 1-4 and went on to win the World Series. In fact, they werent better than .500 at any point in the season until August 6th!
So chill out.
