Bigger in Texas: Phillies sweep Rangers, take 5 ½-game lead in NL East

00:00:03
Speaker 1: Hi, This is Zach Wheeler.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Philly, shown.

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Speaker 3: Tomorrow Junior, Jim Salisbury, Todd z Olecki. How is everybody doing? It's Monday, August eleventh, twenty twenty five. Gentlemen, how are we?

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Speaker 2: I'm doing great, except Jim's struggling with his allergies.

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Speaker 1: Jim barely.

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Speaker 4: I'll grind through.

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Speaker 2: You're your gamer, gamer, He's a gamer.

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Speaker 5: Hey, people wanted to know what's going on with this? Yes, Cuban coffee made in a Mocha pot.

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Speaker 2: A partner Laurie.

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Speaker 5: She's a queen of the Mocha pots and it is the most spectacular coffee of all time.

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Speaker 2: Just want that?

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Speaker 3: Looks that looks like it gets a going in the morning, right there, those folks listening. Ruben's got a curban coffee, very delicious looking cup of coffee.

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Speaker 4: I got some Maxwell houst.

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Speaker 3: Jim fills it to the rim with brim.

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Speaker 1: Remember that commercial.

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Speaker 2: Bulger crystals?

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Speaker 4: I love old commercials.

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Speaker 3: I do too. My My wife hates them because I always go don't you remember that that?

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Speaker 2: Uh?

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Speaker 3: You know that Rice Crispy is commercial from She's.

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Speaker 1: Like what And I go, hold on a second, and I.

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Speaker 4: Pull it up my favorite. You can find this on YouTube. Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day with little Anthony Martinetti running through the streets of the North End of Boston. I absolutely love that commercial. It makes me feel feel like a kid again. How about the life commercial Mikey that he likes it well.

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Speaker 3: I find all those old I sing I sing I sing jingles. This is gonna you guys. Will you guys already know how nuts I am. But I sing so many old jingles at the house, especially like old car dealer ads from Milwaukee where yeah that Now my kids I will break it out every once in a while and they can actually finish the jingle from some crazy old car ad from the eighties in Wisconsin's old school I'm reading, I'm destroying my kids, Oh my gosh. But I hope everybody's doing well. Phillies, Phillies are doing well. Phillies swept the Rangers this weekend in Texas. They opened that we you know, we've got together on Friday, big ten game road trip start in Texas. Texas is playing well. They're going for a wild card. The Phillies sweep the Rangers. Now and guess what happened up in Milwaukee where I was just talking about the Brewers. The Brewers swept the Mets. So now the Phillies have a five and a half game lead over the Mets in the National LEAGUEESE. So it's really just a perfect, perfect weekend for the Phillies. Friday night it was kind of like the Brandon marshow.

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Speaker 2: He had four hits.

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Speaker 3: Sadaturday, the bottom of the lineup came through against Jacob de Gram who is who is dealing for like the first five six innings. And then Sunday, Harrison Bader makes this ridiculous catch, home run saving catch at the wall in center field. Zach Wheeler grinds it out. So just a really just a really great weekend for the fight and Phils and.

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Speaker 4: The crew man, the crew the crew crew man. They got some chemistry and their manager is they're playing for that guy. He was probably gonna be the manager of the year. They're you know, they just play together and they play right, and they just they have something. They're on a roll, and once you start winning, it becomes wildfire and your confidence crews and they're like like the Mets were last year. They're like the latest example of what happens when you build a big head of steam and a lot of momentum and get good pitching.

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Speaker 5: Well, they got good pitching, but they also played the game. As you mentioned in Jim, they played the game right. They run the base as well, they catch the baseball very well. They do a lot of things that are baseball ly fundamentally, and I think that any team that has strong fundamentals can actually outplay teams with more talent. No, I believe that in my art. If you continue to do that, you can put yourself in contention. I challenge the gms in baseball to go back to the fundamentals to try to win games, because if they teach the fundamentals properly and bring them through their system properly to do it, they have a chance to really impact their major league team to the point where they could be contenders every year without having the level of talent necessary. The Pirates, those teams, Tampa Bay, that's the reason why they've been contending for a long times.

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Speaker 2: They play the game right generally. You know, Cleveland Indians.

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Speaker 5: All those teams that play the game properly and play it fundamentally well, they can win.

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Speaker 3: Pat Murphy, I love what he says, He's like, I don't know how we're doing it. I don't nobody knows who we are, but I don't even know how we're doing it. But we're doing it. They get the best record in baseball. But uh, let's let's start Parks Pitch. We got to talk about Zach Wheeler and what we thought about him yesterday. First Pitch is brought to us exclusively by our partners at Parks Casino, Pennsylvania's number one casino. So, Zach Wheeler, I think, Jim you said it on Friday. This is the most important start, maybe by any Phillies pitcher this season. Zach Wheeler start on Sunday because he got pushed back a couple of days because of the sort instance right shoulder. We know how he's pitched his last three four starts before that, he's he hasn't been Zach Wheeler. And then he goes out on Sunday against the Rangers. In the win five innings, three hits, two runs, three walks, seven strikeouts, gives up a home run eighty three pitches in five innings. The VLO is down the four seamers down two mile an hour from the season average. Sinker was down two and a half miles an hour from the season average. After the game, though, he says, I'm not worried it's gonna come back. It's been following baseball at all. If you know baseball at all, this stuff happens over the course of the season. So are you kind of buying what Zach is saying? What do you guys think of Zach Zach's performance on Sunday?

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Speaker 4: Well, first thing I'd like to say is, you know, hat tip to Zach. I mean, massive amount of respect for the way he grinded through that outing when he clearly didn't look like Zach Wheeler. With the Vlo down, he was pulling his fastball again. So I mean, it's just I don't know, Ruben might be better, but it just feels like when you're pulling your fastball, you're not getting that good finish. You're not getting out there and getting that good finish. Maybe something in the shoulders causing that, causing him not to get that good finish, I don't know. Then you could see his style of pitching change a little bit more sweeper, change up, getting away from the power stuff. Because the Viela was down and obviously he's having trouble locating it, so I expect that he grind grinded through it and got him, you know, the five innings, but ran a lot of high pitch counts and a lot of three zero counts. Just didn't look like Zach. So I'm concerned until he looks like Zach again. But I'm kind of glad he was. I'm glad he was able to take the ball. But you know, I don't something's going on. But he's so talented he can he can grind through it. But five innings is not Zach Wheeler. He's he's old school. He wants to pitch seven seven plus take the ball thirty three times, and something's cooking there.

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Speaker 5: Reuben, Right, Yeah, I mean, he wasn't himself, There's no question about it. I don't know whether it was the time off, whether it's the shoulder, whether it's a combination of those things, whether it's a dead arm period that he's going through, and often you know, pitchers go through this. Hopefully he can bounce back and be you know, get that ninety seven and with life ninety six, ninety seven, with life, he did not have that, but he made the adjustments he needed to make to get enough outs to put the Phillies in a position to win the game, which is noble. You could see that. You know, his pitch arsenal is totally different. You know, he's one of those pitchers that pitches with his fastball, whether it's four seam or a sinker, and his sinker hasn't been working all that well. Used very few sinkers. I think it was like nine percent. He typically is like seventeen percent sinkers. And he used his split, so his split became the pitch for the swing and miss, even to right handers. He was throwing it, and that was interesting to see watch him just sort of work his way through it, knowing that he didn't have the good fastball, knowing didn't have the good fastball command, but mixed in the breaking ball and the split to be able.

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Speaker 2: To get outs.

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Speaker 5: Pretty impressive, and Bader kind of bailed him out with a It was a home run that you know, Corey Seeger had hit, and Bader bailed him out with some great defense. There were some great defense all around in that game. Pretty impressive, but a nice job by Zach getting through it.

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Speaker 2: The real big question is how's.

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Speaker 5: He feel today, meaning Monday, later on this afternoon when he checks in and obviously feeling his next start, and we'll see whether he starts to ramp up a little bit from that dead arm.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I mean the fact that you know, he talked to you the other day, Rubin, and he said, listen, I'm not concerned about it. You know, you kind of you take him at his word. And Zach, he is somebody who now I think it was two starts ago he pushed Rob Thompson to go back out there and pitch that. I think it was the seventh inning, right, But there have been several instances over the last four or five years where if Zach does not feel like he has it, he has been honest with Rob Thompson said, you know, I'm kind of you kind of want to probably get somebody up here to pitch the eighth or you probably want to get some up there to pitch the seventh. He will, He'll be pretty honest with Rob. Uh if he's not feeling it. So the fact that he's out there pitching and making the start, I kind of, you know, I guess I give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe this is just a dead, dead arm period. But yeah, I want to see how he feels today Monday. I want to see how he looks in his next start, and uh, you just got to keep watching him, make sure he make sure he comes back healthy. But I mean, the six man rotation certainly feels inevitable at this point. So the Phillies, they play three, They're off on Thursday, right they or no, they play on Thursday.

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Speaker 2: Play on Thursday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

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Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, so they have through Yeah, they have a big run of games coming up here. So the six man rotation, Uh, certainly the next few weeks could come into play at some point. I don't know if it's going to be in this current run of games, but they have a run of games coming in the next week.

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Speaker 4: What's you guys biggest concern the lack of I mean the decline in villa or the the decline in great location both.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, Jimmy, you're right like cutting off the fat you said mentioned the cutting up the fastball.

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Speaker 2: So maybe, yeah, it's.

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Speaker 4: Like when you feel that just a little at the.

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Speaker 5: End, you're right on it, jim And then he used to write on it when he's not able to finish. When he's not get that extension, that's when he gets finished on the pitches. He's not getting the same sort of pit finish, So that writing fastball that you see sometimes even if he throws in ninety five, it has life to it when he's right and you can get guys to swing and miss at it.

00:11:37
Speaker 2: Right now, it's not really happening.

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Speaker 4: And the change in style of pitching yesterday you could see it was to me an admission by him that he's not right right. It's just it's a concern for me because I think he's indispensable. I think he's great, and I think you need him to get where you want to go.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, there, Aaron, they do have you know, Aaron Nola is making a his probably his final rehab start on Tuesday, so he could rejoin the rotation as early as Sunday in DC. And for what it's worth, Andrew Painter pitch on Sunday and Triple A, and he did not pitch particularly well, least by the number line four and a third innings, nine hits, seven in runs. He now has a five four to two ERA and six to give up two home runs as well. Yeah, two walks, two home runs, six strikeouts. So Andrew Painter's not really forcing the issue here in terms of in terms of a promotion so well.

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Speaker 4: I mean they say adversity can lead to growth. I guess he's having a growth moment down there. We'll see. But hey, that was first pitch presented exclusively by our partners at Parks Casino, Pennsylvania's number one casino Parkscasino dot com. You must be twenty one and if you have a gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler.

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00:14:07
Speaker 1: Guys.

00:14:07
Speaker 3: It's Monday and it is time for Manco Manco Best Week Manco and Manco Best Week because Manco Manco is the best of the best.

00:14:20
Speaker 4: We know.

00:14:20
Speaker 2: We were there a couple.

00:14:21
Speaker 3: Sundays ago with our live show Manco Manco Best Week, where we pick the best Phillies player performance, play whatever we choose because we have that right as Manco Manco Last Week. So does anybody want to get us started?

00:14:36
Speaker 4: Jimmy, go ahead, baby, So I'm gonna give a nice big slice of the manco Manco Pie Best of the Week to Brandon Marsh. Just like the way he's playing. I like the confidence he's playing with, like the energy he's playing with, big smile on his face. He's always a great teammate. You watch when he's not playing that given night and someone who is playing does well, he always, you know, exudes happiness for that guy. So he's a hell of a teammate. Since you know, since May, he's he's hitting over three hundred since the start of May, since he came back from the minor leagues. It was like a reset for him. He's talked about it, and he's just playing better and better. Since the All Star break, he's hitting three thirty nine with a one two five ops six sixty four slugging. He's like number seven in the majors in w RC plus one of Todd's favorite stats. But you know, those are nice little snapshots. Says, he's playing batter, he's hitting, he's producing. He's become a really solid, uh contributor for this team, Todd.

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Speaker 3: But you got, yeah, you know, I had Brandon Marsh written down, but I had a backup plan because I also thought, maybe give this guy some love.

00:15:45
Speaker 2: Because there's been a lot of focus on him. It's just one week.

00:15:48
Speaker 3: But this is just best manco manco best week. But but Bryce and Stott. This past week he also batted five hundred gym. He matched Brandon Marsian batting average. He also went seven for fourteen at the plate, two doubles, one triple, four RBIs five sixty three on base, seven eighty six slug and And if you can get just any semblance of production from Bryson Stott at the bottom of that lineup, especially when Alec Boom comes back, if they platoon ed Mundo Sosa and Bryson Stott at second base.

00:16:23
Speaker 1: Man that would make a difference.

00:16:25
Speaker 3: You saw what you know, the bottom of that lineup on Saturday got to Jacob de Gram And it's those little things that can make all the difference in the world in the postseason, you know, in a in a Pennant drive down the stretch. So some positive signs from Bryson Stott this past week.

00:16:43
Speaker 2: Great college boys, and you stole both.

00:16:46
Speaker 1: Of my thunders.

00:16:47
Speaker 5: But so I'm gonna go really really broad and say the bottom of the lineup, I mean, the entire bottom of the lineup, so huge We've been waiting all year long for the Stops and the Marshes of the world to step forward.

00:17:00
Speaker 1: And you know, it's true that.

00:17:02
Speaker 5: The big boys at the top of the lineup have to get the job done for them to win.

00:17:06
Speaker 2: We've talked about that a lot.

00:17:08
Speaker 5: But anytime you have this sort of production that they're getting right now over the last week or so and especially this last weekend, you get the Edmundo Sosis, you know, adding on, you get you know, different types of guys, even Kepler, you got to give him some love. You get a huge base hit against de Grom.

00:17:26
Speaker 8: I mean that that turned that whole series around for me and basically made it happen. I mean, we're all ready to Jennison Max Kepler, but he gets an opportunity to play for Cassianos and comes through.

00:17:38
Speaker 1: Great job by Thompson. I'm giving him the opportunity to do that.

00:17:40
Speaker 5: So I'm gonna say the bottom of the lineup, great job by those boys, and they're the best of the best.

00:17:46
Speaker 2: For me.

00:17:47
Speaker 4: Since the All Star Break, this offense has been very very good, you know. I mean they're number one to happen. Yeah, since the All Star Break, number one in the National League and slugging percentage, number one in home run it's number two in runs, number two in ops right up there, number two and three, and a lot of the advanced metrics. The offense. This has been almost a month since the All Star break. It's there. They just you know, need to put it all together. And their the lineup is playing deeper with the contributions they're getting at the bottom. And Schwarber and Harper have been good, and and Trey Turner, you know, they they survived. He kind of was slumping for a while. He seems to be coming back. Good things are happening. I just wonder if that, you know, the Durand pickup, I think it charged people up a little bit.

00:18:38
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any question.

00:18:39
Speaker 5: And the interesting batter you said Harper, Harper been struggling a little bit. I mean, he came up with a double yesterday and driving the first run, but you know his last I don't know.

00:18:47
Speaker 2: I guess he hasn't been really doing a whole lot of damage.

00:18:51
Speaker 5: And it's nice to see them have solid offense without having Harper be Harper. And once he starts rolling in, look out brother.

00:19:01
Speaker 4: And they did a lot in that game, you know, West and Wilson, nice bass hit, didn't try to do too much. They moved around over the bond they played. I thought they played a really solid offensive series in Texas.

00:19:14
Speaker 2: They really did.

00:19:15
Speaker 3: So a nice segue, guys, because you talked about Brandon Marsh it was Jimmy's Manco Manco best of the week. Rubin had mentioned Max Kepler, and this weekend in Texas we saw three different outfield alignments. Everybody was wondering exactly what's going to happen after those first six games at Rob Thompson said he was going to platoon Mark, Brandon Marsh and Harrison Bader and center field. Well, Friday you had Kepler and left, Marsh and center, Castianos and right, and Saturday you had Marsh and left, Bater and center and Kepler and right. Sunday he had Weston Wilson left, Harrison Bater and center, and Nick Castianos back in midfield. So three different outfield alignments. But to me, the most interesting move out of all of them was Nick Castiano's not playing on Saturday in right field and Rob Thompson going with Max Kepler in right, and I'm wondering my first thought was I was wondering if Rob was gonna maybe ever do this, because he's been pretty loyal to Nick Catstianos in terms of his playing time in right field. Maybe this is we're gonna see a little bit more of this. Maybe we're gonna see a sprinkling of Max Kepler in right field moving forward.

00:20:25
Speaker 2: Do you guys like that idea? I like it.

00:20:27
Speaker 3: I think if you're trying to win the division, if you're trying to see put your best line up on the field, and Max Kepler is swinging the bat rubin he had a ops over one thousand this past week, Max Kepler, he could have been a Manco Manco best week.

00:20:45
Speaker 2: You know, So there's.

00:20:47
Speaker 1: I just like it.

00:20:48
Speaker 3: I like it if Kepler swinging the bat well and you're facing a tough righty, put Marshaan left, Kepler and Wright bater and center, now as you have maybe their best offensive outfield alignment, but you also by far have your best defensive alignment in the outfield as well, by far.

00:21:06
Speaker 1: No doubt.

00:21:07
Speaker 2: And I think that's one of the reasons.

00:21:09
Speaker 5: One of the reasons why that's happening is I just think Rob Thompson is gotten to the point now, and I don't know how much that's gonna happen with Castillanos, but I think Rob Thomps has gotten a little bit to the point with his outfield that he's gonna start doing it the way he did his bullpen for many, many years until you got Joan Duran there pitching in the ninth where you mix and match the right guys at the right time, and I think that's where what he's gonna go with. I mean, he doesn't have any like legit everyday players. Marsh right now with the way he's swinging the bat is like he and he and Vader me maybe guys that you can go out there and say, okay, go ahead and play every single day. Possibly, But I think he's just trying to maximize, you know, everybody's ability and mix and match the way he can and try to win baseball game, because that's what it's about. I love the move. I thought it was great, and the and the players responded for him. I'm not sure how much Catsios would enjoy being a quote unquote platoon player. I don't think that's gonna happen necessarily, but against a tough rady, I think that's the way to go.

00:22:12
Speaker 1: What's wrong with it? Nothing wrong with it at all For me. Nothing.

00:22:15
Speaker 4: I liked it too, There's nothing wrong with it. Manager has the obligation to put the you know, the lineup he thinks can prosper that night. He has an obligation to put that on the field. Platoons can help guys get hot, and then you ride the hot hand. I mean, you know, Kepler, hats off to Kefeley. He's helped him win two big ball games in the last in the last four games, and you know, help them build a five and a half game lead over the slumping Mets. I mean, those are big performances he's given you. So figure out a way to get the most out of your players in a platoon situation. If that's the way to go, then go that way. Ride the hot hand. All about wins. It's not about the me me me, I I I It's all about the ws and this team is putting together something pretty good. And I like the way the manager's employing that. That O wout feel. I mean, I love to play. Harrison Bader made yet say that was that was one of like the Duran pick up has picked up everybody to play like that picks up the whole dugout, picks up everybody. So Ruben, I watch him hit and all I can think of is pet and caphilia.

00:23:18
Speaker 1: You're talking about Bader.

00:23:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, he kind of drops his hands a little bit. Ye nails out on the fast buddy.

00:23:24
Speaker 1: That's a that's a that's an interesting cop.

00:23:26
Speaker 2: He obviously does have the same sort of like you body, but.

00:23:29
Speaker 4: He's he's bulked up, but he's not the as big a person as Pete. He doesn't have a piece of power. But he drops his hands, he kind of stalks a little early. Uh, he's it's It just kind of reminds me of that when I watched it.

00:23:41
Speaker 1: Interesting. Yeah, that's an interesting cop. The other thing, the other thing you get out of Baier is that he's got a little swag to him.

00:23:48
Speaker 5: I think he's got that kind of swag that maybe maybe this clubhouse needed a little bit, you know, a little swag.

00:23:55
Speaker 3: He's got a little bit of a strut out there, you know. Yeah, Yeah, he's a little bit of he has a little bit of a pet bar walk, a little pet barol way, you know.

00:24:04
Speaker 5: Pat kind of a little bit of an ass hat in a positive way.

00:24:10
Speaker 1: I want an ass hat in.

00:24:12
Speaker 2: A positive way.

00:24:16
Speaker 5: You need to be a little bit of an ass blank to play well and to have some attitude to play this game.

00:24:22
Speaker 1: And I kind of like it.

00:24:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, you need to play with some sneer. Yeah, I mean you also need to back it up. But he does with the purple gloves and he plays with some style, and I can see that being a really nice fit in the clubhouse. I think it has. But when you are a character and you have character, and you are a character and you lighten people up and you can back it up on the field, that's when you become a special contributor, no.

00:24:48
Speaker 2: Doubt, Yeah, no doubt about it.

00:24:50
Speaker 3: So the first day he was there, he came in with a cut off Alice Alice.

00:24:56
Speaker 1: Cooper T shirt. Jim Member.

00:24:58
Speaker 3: They had the sleeves cut off, he had the orange jeans. He had like the boots on.

00:25:01
Speaker 4: I believe, pointy cowboy boots. Yeah, the pointed cowboy boots.

00:25:05
Speaker 2: And he had a whole he had a whole vibe going. Yeah, he's got that vibe on the field.

00:25:10
Speaker 3: You mentioned the pink and the pink and purple gloves, and.

00:25:15
Speaker 4: I'll tell you this he don't wear dockers.

00:25:20
Speaker 2: He's not very collegial.

00:25:21
Speaker 3: He's not wearing his pleated khakis to the ballpark. Let's just put it to you that way, Jim.

00:25:26
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Speaker 5: So you must be twenty one and in Pennsylvania, Jersey, Michigan, or Maryland gambling problem, please call one eight hundred gambler.

00:27:36
Speaker 3: The bullpen Joan Douran, you mentioned, gave a little bit of it, gave some juice to this clubhouse, and I absolutely agree with that. He guy's got a presence. He had a presence walking in so better. I mentioned had the Alice Cooper cut off tea going yeah, remember Joanduran had like these really nice like black slacks on, like a really nice black dress shirt, shoes. He came in. He looked suave. He absolutely looks suave.

00:28:05
Speaker 2: He looked.

00:28:05
Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, this guy's This guy also has a vibe and he brings he has a presence in that clubhouse. He certainly has a presence in the mound. He certainly seems to have changed the dynamic of this bullpen. So I kind of want to close the show talking a little bit about this. Sunday, Zach Wheeler five innings the bullpen comes in. Four innings, four hits, no runs, no walks, three strikeouts the bullpen. Everything has lately been kind of lining up, and you look at some of these numbers. Deron his first four appearances with the Phillies, four saves for save opportunities. I think he's given up one hit so far in those four Matt Strom since June twenty ninth, one eight four ERA, Ryan Kirkering since May Firth one six seven e RA, Tanner Banks since June twentieth, one eight six ERA.

00:28:51
Speaker 2: You take out the really bad game against the White.

00:28:55
Speaker 3: Sox, Max Lazar two six three ERA, and you know David robertson his back, Jose Alvarado on Sunday and Triple A made his second rehab appearance. Vilo is ninety seven seven on the sinker, but he could be back on August nineteenth. So the bullpen guys also has kind of been trending in the right direction, Like you talked about the bottom of the lineup, Like we talked about this offense since the All Star break.

00:29:23
Speaker 4: We talk about it all the time. You get that big closer and it allows everybody to slot down a notch. That just saying a cliche, that's real. You slot down, you're getting a roll and you get on a groove.

00:29:36
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:29:36
Speaker 5: I mean they came into this trade deadline ranked like twenty fourth or twenty fifth in baseball in almost every single category in the bullpen, and you know when you start breaking that down.

00:29:49
Speaker 2: I mean, that's not championship caliber. But you add that guy.

00:29:53
Speaker 5: And it changes the dynamic so significantly, as Jim said, and then you add Robertson at.

00:29:59
Speaker 2: Alvarado to the mix. Now you're talking about a real strength. So now you have guys.

00:30:04
Speaker 5: Who are pitching who are supposed to be pitching in the eighth or ninth are now pitching in the sixth. I mean, you're talking about having a level of depth if everybody stays healthy as good as anybody's and it went from maybe being one of the worst and the bottom third of baseball too close to one of the top third. And so it's a dynamic difference. It's a huge get for the Phillies. Hopefully this guy continues to stay healthy and do what he's doing, because if he does, I mean, this team's got a chance, real chance, real legitimate chance to be a World Series winner.

00:30:45
Speaker 4: So much of this team seems to be coming together at the right time. That's why it's so important that that Wheels gets through this and you know, it becomes it looks like Wheels again. But a lot of good things are happening. A five and a half game lead, Wow, it's time to take out that whip and bring it down the bring it down the homes, down.

00:31:05
Speaker 2: The hind quarters, bring it down on the high quarter.

00:31:07
Speaker 4: Bring it down down Tom whip. That put the Mets right in the room. Put the Mets in the rear view mirror. Now pedal to the.

00:31:15
Speaker 3: Metal devo that stuff right.

00:31:18
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.

00:31:21
Speaker 3: I want to mention also, like we're talking about tough. Last episode, we were talking about tough decisions that might need to be made in the bullpen. I just want to mention this, and it's been all these have all been low leverage situations. But in his last eight appearances as well, Jordan Romano two seven zero era who we talk about how what what may check out with a bullpen. So even Jordan Romano and low leverage has been pitching well. So everybody seems to be kind of putting it together. But uh yeah, I agree, Jim, you gotta Everything seems to be kind of going well at the moment except one, and that is a huge thing.

00:31:54
Speaker 2: They gotta get.

00:31:55
Speaker 3: They want, they need good, they need healthy. Ninety seven ninety eight Zach Wheeler down the stretch and certainly in the post. He's one of the best postseason pitchers ever, like Ted Betton at least ten games start, He's like top eight in ERA all time postseason, so they need that going. But yeah, I mean the Phillies also, the Dodgers lost on Sunday. The Phillies right now have the second best record in the National League, which gives him that first round by That's also something that you want to keep an eye on. So Monday night at six ten pm Eastern, you got Taiwan Walker against Andrew Abbott. This is at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. Tuesday at six forties Rangers Suarez against Brady Singer. And then Wednesday the series finale in Cincinnati five to ten, five to ten Eastern, Christopher Sanchez against Hunter Greens.

00:32:44
Speaker 5: So that'll be quite a matchup with Hunter Green coming back off the il Man.

00:32:48
Speaker 2: Hunter Green's been throwing really really well. Yep. Yeah, I mean he's really progressed into the guy that they hope they beat.

00:32:56
Speaker 3: And the Reds, like the Rangers, are on the just on the out side of that wildcard race. I think there like maybe a game and a half behind the Mets, game and a half behind the Mets. This is a team with Terry Frankcona, they've got some copy.

00:33:10
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:33:11
Speaker 3: They they're scrappy there. This is a they're they're playing for it. They want to get back to the postseason. So definitely a big series for the Phillies. So uh guys, well that was fun. We will be back later this week.

00:33:22
Speaker 4: Smell you later.

00:33:24
Speaker 2: It's night Jim.

00:33:25
Speaker 3: The Philly Show is brought to you by the Foul Territory Network. Subscribe to The Philly Show on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. If you like us, give us a review, follow us on Instagram, TikTok x, Facebook, and threads. Find Rubens analysis before, during, and after Phillies games on NBC Sports Philadelphia, on the Sports Radio ninety four WYP Morning Show, and MLB Network.

00:33:48
Speaker 7: Find Jim at all pH l y dot com.

00:33:51
Speaker 4: Find me at MLB dot com

00:33:52
Speaker 3: The Phillies Beat newsletter, and MLB Network