Philadelphia at Toronto, August 15-16

The Phillies sit comfortably enough in second place in the NL East, nowhere near the division lead and probably none too worried about it. As you doubtless recall, just last season they finished third in their own division, 14 games back of the leader, and who was that we all saw in the World Series in October? The Phillies hold the first NL Wild Card spot at the moment.

The Phillies offense has been just average, and the weakest link has been shortstop Trea Turner who signed an enormous contract this winter that binds him to the Phillies through the year 2525, if man is still alive. It may be slightly concerning seeing a 30 year old player lose 40 points across the board on his slash line, and then contemplate the fact that this contract has ten years and more than $270 million left to run. And Bryce Harper seems to have experienced something of a power outage, although his batting numbers otherwise look the same as always. The Phillies will be without centre fielder Brandon Marsh, who is having a very nice season, but he bruised his knee crashing into an outfield wall last week.

The Phillies are pretty good at keeping the other team from scoring, despite the presence of some defensively challenged individuals in their daily lineups. Lately Bryce Harper has been learning to play first base, allowing Kyle Schwarber to DH (and, most importantly, getting Schwarber's glove off the field.). None of their pitchers are having a particularly great season, but everyone's been pretty good.

The Story So Far

After their disastrous visit to Fenway at the beginning of May, The Blue Jays thought they had righted the ship by sweeping the Pirates in Pittsburgh. And then they went to Philadelphia to wrap up the road trip.

Tue May 9: Toronto 4 Philadelphia 8 - The Jays took the early lead when Bichette doubled in Kiermaier in the third, but a two run homer from Castellanos gave the Phillies a lead they would maintain for the rest of the game. Alek Manoah threw 94 pitches to just 20 hitters and was chased in the fifth trailing 3-1. The Jays would draw closer twice - once on a Bichette homer, again on an error and a hit batter with the bases loaded - but every time they did the Phillies responded with runs of their own.

Wed 10 May: Toronto 1 Philadelphia 2 - Gausman and Wheeler locked up in an excellent pitcher's duel - a solo belt from Belt in the fifth was the only scoring until Romano came on in the ninth to close it out. Singles from Harper and Castellano and a Realmuto double tied the game - the Phillies almost won it then and there but Guerrero threw out Castellano at home plate. So we went to extras, and with runners on first and second with one out, Harper hit a sharp comebacker. Mayza threw to second to start the DP but Bichette's relay to first went wide and Sosa barely beat Guerrero's throw home to win it.

Matchups!