Another September flop more like a season-long expectation
PHILADELPHIA » The Phillies had just lost for the sixth time in seven games, wasting another opportunity to move closer to the top of the NL
East.
They were sloppy on the basepaths, unthinking in the batters’ box, and ordinary on the mound.
They appeared uninspired, flat, slow and distant.
They were, by any measurable, the .500 team they’d been for most of a checkered season.
That’s when Kyle Gibson chimed in.
“I don’t want,” he said, “to make too much of the situation.”
The Phillies should be so lucky. They should wish they had fans who would take that situation and make it an issue.
They should be good enough that such a spray of home-game disappointment in the middle of September should cause customers to overturn rubbish buckets, to drape bedsheet banners from the mezzanine, to charter planes with “Joe Must Go” signs around the stadium perimeter.
The Phillies have none of that. And more than anything — more than finding another three starting pitchers — that’s what John Middleton must address when the Phillies’ 10th annual playoff-free season ends in a few weeks.
While he rightly allows Dave Dombrowski to rebuild everything from the bush leagues to the bullpen, Mr. CEO must find out why Philadelphia has so lost
The Americans would seem to have a lot in their favor at the Ryder Cup.
They are on home soil at Whistling Straits along the Wisconsin shores of Lake Michigan. A full house is expected, along with louder than usual cheering for the Stars & Stripes because of COVID-19 travel restrictions for European-based
fans.
As for the players? Younger than ever, to be sure, but no less stacked. The Americans have eight of the top 10 in the world ranking — Europe only has Jon Rahm at No. 1 — on a team that has won twice as many majors.
This is nothing new, of course. With one exception, the Americans always bring a better collection of players to the Ryder Cup.