Season shaping up to be a special one for Phillies
PHILADELPHIA » No one would have believed the story the Eagles wrote on their way to winning Super Bowl LII other than maybe Jason Kelce, who obviously had some sort of premonition judging by all the material he used in his six-minute victory parade rant.
The Eagles overcame a brutal schedule that had them playing three of their first four games on the road. They weathered crippling injuries to Carson Wentz, Jason Peters, Darren Sproles and kicker Caleb Sturgis, among others.
They won and they won and the disrespect just kept coming. The Eagles became the first No. 1 seed to enter the playoffs as an underdog and later, just the second team since 2003 to go from worst to first in their division and win a Super Bowl. The other worst-to-first world champion was the 2009 New Orleans Bounties, uh, Saints.
Above all the Eagles did it with Nick Foles not only taking over at quarterback but earning SB LII MVP honors. The book he wrote chronicling the craziness was titled, appropriately enough “Believe it.”
You had to see it to believe it. Be honest. You were hanging on, just as Merrill Reese and Mike Quick were, when Tom Brady’s last throw of the last game was – “batted away! The game is over! The Eagles are Super Bowl champs!”
It was a Disney production. Kelce slammed that point home time and again during his speech on the steps of the Art Museum. “We’re from Philly, no one likes us and we don’t care.”
Stunning as that was, something more incredible, more amazing, more unbelievable is taking shape in South Philly.
That would be the Phillies. If Gabe Kapler leads this team to victory in the 2018 World Series, beating, say the Boston Red Sox, it won’t be an Eagles town – at least for the rest of the year.
Even Doug Pederson came into the special season with fewer question marks than Kapler. Pederson, remember, was supposedly unqualified for the coaching job. The previous year he was questioned every time he tried to convert on fourth down, every time he tried to find someone incapable of replacing suspended offensive tackle Lane Johnson, and every time he came off as soft. Hard to believe Nelson Agholor survived for a second season with Pederson after the receiver’s meltdown during a road trip.
Kapler checked in as even less of a commodity. He arrived with a briefcase full of analytics, a style of play where walks and homers rule, batters try to get pitch counts up, infield shifts are cool and the bullpen has to be ready at a minute’s notice. Even position players better be ready to throw a few innings. Closer by committee, anyone?
The Phillies have big money players but no superstars. They get it done with a team effort, and analytics, much like the Eagles. They’ve also added in season help as they’ve become more competitive.
What’s fascinating is the culture Kapler has created despite force-feeding the numbers to young players and veterans alike.
In June, it looked like there was going to be a revolt when high-priced pitcher Jake Arieta ripped Kapler’s shifts and demanded accountability from “top to bottom” after a “horse-bleep” display against the San Francisco Giants.
On Saturday, Arieta was keeping the Phillies in the pennant race against Cy Young candidate Jacob deGrom.
Many of the fans who braved the 41-minute rain delay with the Phillies trailing the New York Mets, 1-0, were standing in the sixth inning when Arieta fanned Austin Jackson with a 93 m.p.h. sinker, stranding a couple of runners. That was the end of the day for Arieta, and his Snake T-shirt giveaway outing, as he’d thrown 96 pitches. He gave up just four hits and one earned run, striking out six.
“Just a tough one,” Arieta said. “You know (deGrom is) going to be stingy with runs. When I gave up one in the fourth you still knew we had a chance. Even later in the game we had a shot. But you saw the last two pitches of the game, two 99 m.p.h. fastballs. That guy, he’s something else right now.”
The win expectancy percentage for the Phillies – to borrow some analytics talk from Kapler – went down when reliever Luis Garcia was touched for a home run by Devin Mesoraco. Probably don’t want to hang a slider against any MLB hitter. Especially a mid80s slider. Garcia gave up another run and just like that, the Phillies were in a 3-0 hole.