The Phillies have been wearing their hitting shoes, winning the first three games against the Dodgers by a a combined score of 29-20. Bryce Harper has been on an absolute tear this past week, going 14 for 23 with six doubles, three homers, and eight RBI. That's good for a .609 batting average and an absolutely insane OPS of 1.904. If those aren't player of the week numbers, I don't know what are. His batting average has climbed from .241 to .305, and he's doing all this with a tear in his elbow.
The best thing about this is that it's against a really good team, one picked to win the World Series. I'd still be happy if it was against the Pirates or Reds, but putting a beating on the Dodgers has been pretty nice to watch.
The Phils are now 6-2 in their last eight games and have climbed back to .500. They're still 5.5 games behind the Mets, but the team is showing a lot more life than they did a week ago. They're second in the National League in batting average and runs scored and first in OPS and OPS+. And the pitching has been good enough through this stretch.
The Phils go for the sweep today with Aaron Nola facing Michael Grove, a 25-year-old righty making his MLB debut. He hasn't gone more than 4 innings in any of his starts but is holding AA hitters to a .180 batting average. But like I said up above, this Phillies team isn't some AA squad. They should be able to pound this kid early and often.
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