The Phillies are one of the hottest teams in baseball right now, winners of six of their last seven and they have one of baseball's hottest hitters. And when this hitter was struggling, so were the Phillies.
Rhys Hoskins had another homer last night and three more RBIS, and his batting average is up to .260. That's pretty remarkable considering that on Aug. 8, Hoskins was hitting .120 with a .533 OPS. His OPS now stands at .946. Andrew McCutchen is even hotter, hitting .375 in the last seven games.
The Phils are doing this without much help from either Bryce Harper or JT Realmuto. Harper has just three hits in 25 at bats during this streak, while Realmuto is 5 for 29. Between the two of them, they have one homer and five RBIs in the last week. So what gives?
The pitching has been much better, especially the bullpen. Sure, the relievers gave up four runs last night, but since Matt Klentak got bona fide major leaguers to pitch relief, things have turned around. The Phils are 15-15, tied for second place with the Marlins in the NL East and three games behind the Braves.
The last two Septembers, the Phils have crumbled and fallen out of contention. I don't see that happening this year. The offense is a lot more potent and the pitching is much, much better. October baseball? It could be a thing in Philadelphia.
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