The Philadelphia Phillies are 1.0 game back of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record in the National League after their 10-0 loss to the Houston Astros on Wednesday. The Phillies are 5.0 games up on the Atlanta Braves in the NL East with 29 games left to play in the regular season.
Rob Thomson’s team has started to play much better baseball over the last two weeks compared to how they were playing for about a month going back to the All-Star break.
Phillies' biggest strength needs to carry them into and through the playoffs
The playoffs are approaching. This is the time of the Major League Baseball season when teams need to dial in and play their best baseball to secure a playoff spot and carry momentum into the postseason. The Phillies might have an advantage over other teams when it comes to a certain group on the ball club.
The Phillies have four starting pitchers in the rotation who all could be argued as some of the best in the league. Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sánchez and Ranger Suárez make up a dominant group. The kind of starting rotation that the organization hasn’t seen since the “Four Aces” in 2011.
Playoff baseball is won by dominant pitching and defense. Sure, offensive explosions are fun and all, but teams who shut down opposing offenses are likely to make a deep run toward a World Series championship. The Phillies’ biggest strength is the starting rotation, according to David Schoenfield of ESPN, and the starters have the ability to carry them into and through the playoffs this year.
The Phillies’ starting rotation was a dominant group before the All-Star break. The group had multiple candidates to win the NL Cy Young Award, and they were battling against one another in the race for the prestigious award for quite some time. Wheeler, Suárez and Sánchez each had sub-3.00 ERAs. Wheeler, Suárez and Nola each had 10 or more wins.
Phillies’ starting rotation needs to regain dominant form heading into the final stretch of the season
The same success from the starting rotation hasn’t carried over since the All-Star break contributing to the Phillies’ team-wide slump. Wheeler has still been dominating and Nola’s ERA sits at 3.09 since the break after his dominating start against the Astros on Tuesday. The slight concern is that Sánchez’s ERA has risen significantly, Suárez’s ERA has gone up, and the combined record between the four starters is 6-10 in 24 starts. Suárez did miss a chunk of time due to an injury that landed him on the IL, so he’s only started two games in the second half of the season.
The Phillies need the starting rotation to stay healthy and find their success from the first half of the season. It’ll be much needed to close out the regular season and help lock up home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Phillies will also be facing some really good lineups come playoff time, so the starting rotation is integral in their quest for the franchise’s first World Series championship since 2008.