Philadelphia Phillies: 3 concerns going into the NLCS
By Tim Boyle
The Philadelphia Phillies take on the San Diego Padres for the National League Pennant beginning this week. Who saw this coming from either team?
The Phillies should be confident after taking down the St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves. Two division winners down. Now all they need to do is defeat the other National League Wild Card club.
As confident as we can be with this red-hot Phillies team, there are some concerns we need to talk about.
1) The Philadelphia Phillies aren’t getting anything out of Kyle Schwarber
The Philadelphia Phillies’ offense has been quite explosive in the postseason without the help of Kyle Schwarber. Just 1 for 20 with eight strikeouts; it’s pretty amazing they’ve been as successful as they have been without him hitting.
Phillies fans have gotten used to Schwarber being hot or cold. He led the National League in home runs during the regular season, but it came with only a .218 batting average and a league-high 200 strikeouts.
With Schwarber also hitting leadoff on a consistent basis, it seems like they’re starting off most games with an out already. He’s getting more at-bats than anyone else on the team, too. If the Schwarber drought continues, it’s something that could hold the Phillies back.
Of course, Rob Thomson is hoping Schwarber snaps out of it and becomes the other half of his streakiness for the rest of the postseason—beginning with the NLCS against the Padres. Schwarber didn’t accidentally hit 46 home runs this year. Right now, we’ll take any sort of production from him. Hit the ball far or hit it often. We don’t care. Just give us something.