Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt, And More In Today’s Audio Vault

With Anthony in Italy for a few weeks, Andrew Salciunas slid into the host's chair, with Jamie Lynch co-hosting with him. That meant Ray Dunne was in charge of The Audio Vault. Every day on The Anthony Gargano show they dive into the Vault to pull out stuff relevant to the day. That may be famous Birthdays, things that happened on this day in history, or more. Today that meant looking back at something that Mike Schmidt did after he retired, Steve Carlton breaking a record, and more.

The Philadelphia Phillies road winning streak has reached 11 games following their latest win over the Tampa Bay Rays. It has been a remarkable stretch of baseball played away from Citizens Bank Park. And it is one of the longest streaks of that kind in franchise history. So, I figured it was time to take a look at the numbers over the last 11 road games. To try and see what the Phils are doing so well. Here are some interesting numbers from this awesome run of road baseball that point to the Phillies road winning streak’s origin:

In order to go on this type of a win streak, the offense has to be producing at a high level, and the Phillies’ has. Batting .264 might not sound like a lot, but the Miami Marlins are hitting .264 for the season, the 3^rd best mark in all of baseball. That puts in perspective just how hot the Phillies have been at the dish during their road-winning streak.

During the Phillies road winning streak, they have outscored their opponents by a combined 36 runs, a whopping run differential over 11 games. That means that they are scoring, on average, about 3 more runs a game than their opponents. These aren’t just one run games; the Phillies offense is out-slugging the opposition on the road, an impressive feat.

Oh yeah, it hasn’t just been the offense that has been fueling the Phillies’ road-winning streak. The pitching has been arguably better than the hitting, as evident by the 2.18 team ERA. The starters have been staggeringly good, the bullpen has been beautifully effective, and opponents have had no shot to put up a significant amount of runs. THAT is how you win baseball games.

What’s funny about this winning streak is that the Phillies’ defense has not been all that good, even with their 11 straight wins. They’ve made 7 errors in their last 11 road games, which is more than an error every other game. That’s not a good mark to aim for, and yet, the Phils continue to win games. This is not only a credit to the pitching staff overcoming rough defense, but a sign that there is still better baseball to come from this team.

1976 was the last time the Philadelphia Phillies’ franchise had a road-winning streak of 11 wins or better. That team finished with 13 straight wins on the road. Besides the 1976 team and this current streak, only the 1887 Phillies reached the 11 straight road wins mark. This has been a historically good run of games away from home, and with 4 more road games before the All-Star break, the 2023 Phillies could stand alone before long.