Little-Known Facts with Cliff Clavin, Vol. 1

Just stumbled across something on Baseball-Reference.com that I found to be kind of interesting. BR is the place to go when you're searching for anything from the mundane to the sublime.

Anyway, the Phillies have the highest number of successful challenges in MLB when contesting umpires' calls. The Phils have been correct in 19 of 27 challenges this season, good for a 70 percent rating. That percentage is tied for third in MLB, behind the Royals (75 percent) and Yankees (73) and tied with the Giants. The Cardinals have challenged the most (34) but have only been successful 41 percent of the time. The Orioles have only challenged 13 calls all season and have been successful just 3 times.

You have to give credit to manager Gabe Kapler and his coaching staff for this and the team's overall success. We hoped the Phils would somehow manage to win 80 games this season. The fact that the Phillies hold a 1-game lead in the National League East on July 23 is absolutely astounding. And Kapler, even with all the heat he took in the season's first week, deserves to be National League Manager of the Year. He's done a great job with the team with the youngest offense in baseball and the second-youngest pitching staff.

The Phils have 55 wins and are 12 games over .500. Last year's team didn't win its 55th game until Sept. 12. Absolutely astounding.