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The Good Phight

Small victories, large defeats.

Latest Entries

History is not on the Phillies’ side, but they’re also not dead

With each gruesome loss, the bleakness of their situation increases. You can see it in the numbers. After Monday night’s 5-1 loss to the Cubs, the Phillies are 8-14. They have had a similar, or worse, record a number of times in their long and storied franchise history, and the trends do not portent good […]

The Phillies are playing poorly and getting unlucky

The Phillies can’t do anything right at the moment. They’ve pitched poorly, their defense has been a mess, and their offense has been almost nonexistent. In addition to playing poorly, they’ve also had absolutely horrendous luck, as their .355 batting average on balls in play against is the worst in baseball entering Monday. In fact, […]

How would you align the Phillies bullpen in Jhoan Duran’s absence?

During this brutal start to the season, the Phillies have also seen a rash of injuries hit their bullpen. First it was Jonathan Bowlan (who had been one of the few players off to an encouraging start), then Zach Pop, and finally over the weekend, Jhoan Duran was added to the injured list with an […]

Taking it on the Chin: Cubs 5 Phillies 1

For one night, it wasn’t swinging bunts or soft jam shots that killed the Phillies pitching staff. Instead, it was hard contact from the Cubs lineup that plagued Nola’s night. Aaron Nola walked back to the mound for his second inning of work in Wrigley, after the offense behind him stranded the bases loaded with […]

Opposition research: Nico Hoerner

In 2023, I thought it would be fun to title my series previews using lyrics from Beastie Boys songs. It seemed like a fine idea until the Phillies found themselves seven games under .500 in early June. I decided that they no longer deserved me making the effort to find an appropriate song lyric. Once […]

Three up, three down: week of April 13-19

There are some weeks where finding the three players that played well is rather difficult. With the Phillies, this is one of those weeks. Nothing went right, but on we shall march. Three up Cristopher Sanchez – Man, when your defense lets you down, it can make a good week look a whole lot worse. […]

What do you think will turn around the soonest for the Phillies?

The Phillies just suffered their worst homestand in quite a while. They didn’t hit well, they didn’t field well, they (honestly) didn’t pitch very well either. It’s not good baseball to watch, it’s not good baseball to analyze right now. Is there anything going right for the team at this moment? Bryce Harper has been […]

Phillies news: Taijuan Walker, Bryson Stott, Hunter Brown

I’m usually the one around here that looks for the optimistic point of view with the Phillies. They’re still a talented team that will likely make the playoffs this year, even if right now it’s bleak. The baseball gods have frowned on them in a rather substantial way (or is it the ghost of Harry […]

Let’s go Flyers: Braves 4, Phillies 2

It was a big weekend for Philadelphia sports. The Sixers and Flyers began their first-round playoff series, while the Phillies hosted the first-place Braves for a three-game series. The Flyers came through with a hard fought 3-2 win on Saturday night. But the rest of the weekend did not go well for the city (that […]

Gamethread 4/19: Phillies vs. Braves

The Phillies will try to salvage the final game of their series against the Atlanta Braves. The offense has been largely non-existent in the first two games, as the Phillies have lost by scores of 9-0 and 3-1. Righthander Andrew Painter will be given the ball in an attempt to avoid a sweep. The Braves […]

Should there be any panic yet with the Phillies?

It’s ugly right now. The offense isn’t hitting, the defense can’t field and the pitching hasn’t been as sharp as we’ve seen in the past. There feels like a lot is just off with the team. People can still say it’s early and that they had time while also admitting that things need to get […]

Phillies news: Taijuan Walker, Zack Wheeler, Kyle Stowers

Calling up Felix Reyes was an idea that someone in the front office had in order to give the offense a spark. “Moribund” is an adjective that isn’t used enough, but it’s accurate in describing what the Phillies’ offense has been of late. Reyes hitting a home run on the first strike he saw was […]

What’s the definition of a broken record?: Braves 3, Phillies 1

When I was growing up, the term “broken record” never really made sense to me. If a record was broken, to my young and impressionable mind, how would it actually work in the first place? I knew that the general meaning was that if something sounded like a broken record, you’d hear it over and […]

Jhoan Duran to the IL, Otto Kemp to Lehigh

Some news on the day for the Phillies, not all of it good. The Duran injury is one that is an issue, but he hasn’t had many leads to protect anyway! They can linger, so they’ll likely take their time on it. Otto Kemp has done almost nothing with the big league team, so they’re […]

What would be your idea to shake up the offense?

The offense is S-T-R-U-G-G-L-I-N-G right now outside of Bryce Harper. There doesn’t seem to be cohesion with the group, a plan when they face a opposing pitchers or any type of approach. We know that truly isn’t the case since these are dedicated professionals, but if we’re going off of what the kids say these […]

MLB

Time for a change: Braves 9, Phillies 0

The Phillies stunk something awful tonight. The offense decided not to show up yet again, a theme that is starting to become a recurring one, but that should course correct in due time. What isn’t going to course correct itself is that Taijuan Walker again put his team behind in the first inning and then […]

Which Phillies beatdown of the Braves was better?

This weekend, the first place Atlanta Braves come to Citizens Bank Park to take on a struggling Phillies team that is falling short in virtually every phase of the game. It’s been a rough go for the Phils, losers of their last three home series, a shocking development given they only lost three home series […]

The Notes: Kerkering Backdooring Sweepers and Stott and Harper’s Approaches

A sequence doesn’t have to involve different tunnels and different mixes. Sometimes a catcher and pitcher can just pick up on a hitter’s body language and how they take a pitch. Ian Happ gave up the outside part of the plate on three straight backdoor sweepers that Kerkering painted. H stood there like a statue […]

MLB