Well after the chaotic up and down early portion of the Phillies' season, the Phillies are now staring down the rest of the year. It's time to really figure out what this team is. Are they the same contending team they've been the past several years? Or are they officially an average or straight up descending team? This team is really hard to read at the moment.
I still feel as though they're going to be ok, but I am not fully convinced yet and time is slowly but surely ticking. June is only a handful of days away. A hot and cold team just feels a bit unsettling at times.
Andrew Painter was actually pretty good on the mound yesterday, he's looking better which is cool. He's starting to prove he belongs. He pitched 6 1/3 innings and allowed just two runs. This is his second time pitching at least six innings in his MLB career, and they occurred in his last two outings. Definitely some positive signs from him! The loss was certainly not on him yesterday.
Yesterday's loss was on the offense. This 1-4 stretch by the Phillies in general has been on the offense as they've averaged 1.8 runs a game in that time. That's not gonna cut it no matter how elite a pitching staff may be.
But as I said, they're officially in grind mode now. It feels like the team has gone through a sort of adrenaline dump. They've been through a terrible cold streak, a manager change, a hot streak, and now the games keep coming.
Tonight the Phils are out on the west coast to face the Padres. Jesús Luzardo is on the mound and while he's not a rookie as Andrew Painter is, Luzardo has been showing some improvement as of late similar to Painter, so that's good.
It's sorta funny that the Phillies are facing the Padres as the A's just faced them! The Padres are one of the better teams in baseball, so this will be a tough test for the suddenly cooling down Phillies.
Nick Castellanos is set to face the Phillies for the first time since he was released by the Phillies in February. This could definitely be interesting.... I always liked Castellanos for the most part. He definitely provided some big hits and fun moments in his four years as a Phillie.
Let's see how it goes down!
