Time for fans to dive in and enjoy run
PHILADELPHIA >> At a time in history when everyone is expected to buy into an idea, take a side, make a statement and refuse compromise on any issue sports-related or otherwise, the eternally tormented Phillies fan has never been so challenged.
Which way to go? Believe? Or don’t believe? Sellers? Or buyers?
For real? Or fake?
And as the world champion Dodgers hover about Citizens Bank Park for a three-game series to begin Tuesday night at 7:05, there has been a demand for one question to be answered: In? Or out?
Is it time to commit emotions, dollars and time to watching a team with two All-Stars in the starting rotation, a third starter who was a 2018 Cy Young finalist, an MVP candidate in his prime, a manager with a down payment on a Hall of Fame resume, an owner who spends and a baseball-ops president known for being a winner?
Or is not worth the stress to invest in a team that has blown 24 saves, plays worse defense than Jahlil Okafor, is ever injured, needs a starter-by-committee option every fifth day and whose manager too seldom misses an opportunity to baffle?
The questions, on both sides, are legitimate.
The answer, though, is simple: Dive in. Have at it. Enjoy.
Sure, it’s easy to call shotgun and ride with a team on an eight-game winning streak and a two-game lead in the standings as mid-August looms. It’s the main reason why crowds are returning to the park, with 105,349 showing up for the three-game series with the Mets, the figure inflated some by the usual boost from New York fans.
The Dodgers are typically an easy sell, too. The telling series will come this weekend, when the Reds, with their under-publicized talent, arrive without any rivalry buzz. But the trend is obvious: The Phillies are becoming popular again.
The reason: They’ve earned it at every turn. That starts with
Dave Dombrowski, who, like everyone with an unobstructed seat, realized the Phillies needed help at the trade deadline. Yet while a certain choir was chanting at him to sell and rebuild, the two-time world-champion team-builder quietly acquired starter Kyle Gibson and closer Ian Kennedy, letting the Rangers do that rebuilding instead.
Gibson was an All-Star this season, Kennedy a veteran closer with a legendary competitive streak. Even if they are not Max Scherzer and Craig Kimbrel, they embody the truth that Dombrowski was willing to participate in the pennant race. The Phillies needed a boost, and management provided that boost. Soon, the Phillies were playing not as if they expected to lose, but as if the NL East was theirs to win.
“We think it gives us a little better chance to win,” Dombrowski said at the time. “Of course, now we’ve got to take care of that on the field.”
With one of the top five payrolls in baseball, the Phillies already were set up to win. They didn’t need much help. They needed a closer. They needed a starter. Then, they needed to grow healthy. Bryce Harper had hit the medical report with seven different injuries early in the season, none season-threatening, all enough to suppress the potential of the lineup. J.T. Realmuto, Didi Gregorius and Jean Segura also missed time. There were others. Baseball is that way, and depth matters. Yet it was when they finally had a chance to have their preferred lineup for reasonable stretches that the Phillies started to win, and in dramatic ways.
“We have guys up and down the lineup,” Rhys Hoskins said, “with the ability to produce at any time.”
That the Phillies are still involved in a race, let alone in first place, is startling, given their early-season bullpen struggles and injuries. But central to believing in itself, and critical to any fan buy-in, is the recognition of the situation. In this particular season, the Nationals did a sell-off, the Braves lost Ronald Acuna for the season and the Mets lost their spirit after learning Jacob deGrom would be out until September. And there were the Phillies with $184,000,000 in payroll realizing they had the best lineup in the division and a starting rotation that, when right, can win any big series.
So there they will be Tuesday, in a showdown with the world champions, facing Scherzer and trying to pad their division lead. Big series, indeed.
They may win it. They may lose it.
But they will in no way be out of place against the Dodgers, not with the way they are hitting, not with the way their bullpen has solidified, not with Aaron Nola and Gibson ready for the first two games, and not in that ballpark, which has come alive.
“The guys are swinging great, the guys are pitching great,” Girardi said. “We’re just playing good baseball.”
Good enough to deserve any firm, unwavering commitment.