Philadelphia Sports: Inaugural winner and loser of the week

By Anthony Mazziotti | May 26, 2017

Apr 22, 2017; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Union fan cheers through a megaphone during the second half against the Montreal Impact at Talen Energy Stadium. The game ended in a 3-3 draw. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /

There’s always sports drama going on in the City of Brotherly love, whether it’s the never ending Sixers Process or having mixed emotions on Derek Barnett being picked at fourteen, there is always something to talk about in Philadelphia sports.

Because everyone is entitled to their opinions and someone is always being put under a microscope or being praised as the best thing since TastyKakes in this town, I announce the first ever Section215 Philadelphia sports winner and loser of the week.

I can’t believe it took this long for something like this to come to life. The criteria is simple, from Thursday to Thursday I will examine the details of everything Philadelphia sports, it can be anything from the five major sports (Philadelphia Eagles, Sixers, Flyers, Phillies, or Union), to college sports (LaSalle, Temple, UPenn, Villanova, Drexel), to UFC Fighters (Eddie Alvarez, Paul Felder, Corey Anderson). Across the board I will find a winner and loser of the week.

That’s about it, it’s a pretty straight forward weekly article that will go out on Fridays. So without further ado I present the loser of last week: The Philadelphia Phillies organization.

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Let’s be honest, you should have saw that coming. Since last Thursday, May 18, the Phillies have gone 2-6. During that stretch they lost with the following scores: 8-4, 6-3, 1-0, 8-1, 8-2, 7-2. They dropped one to the Texas Rangers, two to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and three to the Colorado Rockies. The two games they won were a 7-2 route of the Pirates and a 2-1 win in the 11th inning against the Rockies.

There haven’t been many bright spots on the Phillies this past week. The bullpen has been atrocious, Aaron Altherr and Cesar Hernandez have come crashing down to Earth, and to say that Maikel Franco and Odubel Herrera have been slumping is an understatement. The starting pitching hasn’t been it’s best either, Jerad Eickhoff earned another loss on Monday, Zach Eflin has yet to earn a win, and even the steady Jeremy Hellickson had a tough outing.

Manager Pete Mackanin is not quite on the proverbial hot seat, but he could find his way there soon if the Phils don’t turn it around soon. This isn’t the best roster but they are better than what they’ve been playing like.

There were only two real bright spots over the past week, Tommy Joseph seems to have found his form and is working out of a slump. The other bright spot is Aaron Nola’s return, where he allowed one run in seven innings. The downfall? The offense couldn’t find a way to score two runs when their starter gave them seven strong innings. Nola is looking like Hamels 2.0.

While I maintain that the Philadelphia Phillies will be the next team to parade down Broad Street, their play over the last seven days has given me no choice but to announce them as the inaugural loser(s) of the week.

Moving on, I would like to announce the first ever Philadelphia sports winner of the week, the Philadelphia Union!

Two teams on the opposite ends of the spectrum. The Union are the hottest team in Philadelphia at the moment, beating out the only competition they have by a mile.

The Union have won their only game this week, a 2-1 decision over the Colorado Rapids at home on the 20th. If you can’t Wednesday’s matchup against Houston they are 2-0 in as many games. The Union look to extend their streak on Saturday against Real Salt Lake.

This streak is big for the Union, after having an incredibly slow start to the year they are unbeaten in their last six games. The tactical changes that Curtin has made during the unbeaten run have made all the difference for the Union. For a manager usually not known for his tactics it has been nice to see. Just weeks after being the most hated coach in Philadelphia, Jim Curtin proved his worth and has his squad in playoff contention again.

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There you have it. From May 18-25 the best and worst the City of Philadelphia has to offer. On one hand, the Phillies are playing like the rebuilding team we know they are. On the other hand the Union are showing everyone that they are capable of bringing a championship to Philly. Remember to let us know who deserves to be the winner and loser of next week!

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