Philadelphia Phillies: Bryce Harper can’t hurdle the Twins at home
Despite being more flash than substance, the Philadelphia Phillies’ offensive woes against the Twins are nothing to be worried about moving forward.
Say what you will about brand new Philadelphia Phillies superstar Bryce Harper, but you can’t knock his flair for the dramatics.
Case and point; his attempted hurdle over Minnesota Twins‘ catcher Willians Astudillo on an ill-fated attempt to score the tying run in the bottom of the sixth inning on a Caesar Hernandez pop fly.
And in a weird, wordy way, that play pretty much defined the Phillies’ 6-2 loss to the Twins in their first Saturday matinée of the season at Citizen’s Bank Park.
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After logging six straight games with five or more scored runs, including five with eight or more, the Phils’ offense went flat at the most inopportune time; in front of an over capacity 44,693 sold-out crowd.
Sure, Rhys Hoskins still hit a solo home run, his second of the season and a solid way to break his six-game slugging slump, but outside of an Odubel Herrera sacrifice fly ball with the bases loaded, the Phillies really didn’t have a whole lot going on offensively.
Despite having the same number of base hits as the Twins (six), the two teams couldn’t have had a more different afternoon.
However, there is a bright side to this situation that may be hard to stomach for fans who shelled out their hard-earned money to see the new home run happy Fightin’ Phils; it’s just a game.
In baseball, more so than any other sport, a single game has almost no impact on a team’s overall fortunes. Sure, some games matter more than others, like against a divisional foe, or in a tight race for a playoff spot, but because of the sheer number of games played over a six-plus month period, even the best teams will drop an ugly loss to a lesser foe for almost no conceivable reason at all.
While it seemed almost impossible to imagine the Phillies averaging over six runs and two home runs a night, as that would put the team on pace for the most potent offense in baseball history by a pretty considerate margin, they also aren’t going to have six base hits and only score two runs very often either.
Because of Gabe Kapler‘s considerable interest in ‘Sabermetrics’ and advanced analytics when it comes to team composition, the team’s currently rigid rotations will soon become more flexible, a significant boon for a team with such a stacked bench featuring starting caliber contributors like Nick Williams, Scott Kingery, and Aaron Altherr.
Next. The Philadelphia Phillies are following the 2004 Eagles’ blueprint. dark
With one more game left to play against the Minnesota Twins before another three-game series against Bryce Harper’s former club the Washington Nationals, it will be incredibly fascinating to see how the Philadelphia Phillies will be able to bounce back from their first taste of adversity in their third straight contest against a legitimate playoff contender.