The Ramos roundup is a weekly sports column highlighting all the news of the week featuring the Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, Sixers, and Union.
Phillies Complete Road-Trip 5-2, Defeat Mets 5-4
The Phillies picked up their fourth straight series win on Sunday, defeating the Mets 5-4 at Citi Field in New York. The series victory also marks Philadelphia’s seventh series win over their past eight series. Jesus Luzarado took the ball for the Phils, logging four scoreless innings before a 30-pitch 5th inning chased him from the contest. The bullpen would squander Philly’s lead in the bottom of the 6th before Kyle Schwarber crushed his MLB-leading 30th of the season.
The Phils return home on Monday and begin a four game series against the Pirates at Citizens Bank Ballpark.
Sixers Take Labaron Philon Jr. in NBA Draft
On Tuesday, the NBA held it’s annual rookie entry draft with the Sixers holding the 22nd overall pick. Philly opted to select Alabama star Labaron Philon Jr. with the pick. Philon, 20, is a dynamic guard and can give the Sixers a third talented option off the bench behind VJ Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey. Further, the 6’4″ guard is coming off a very productive campaign at bama as a Sophomore, handling the ball a lot and shooting 39.9 percent on 6.2 attempts per game from beyond the arc.
In other Sixers related news, NBA free agency negotiating begins on June 30 at 6 p.m. so we’ll see what the new front office has in store. Teams, of course, are permitted to officially start signing contracts on July 6 at 12:00 p.m. As of this writing, the Sixers have been connected to Dean Wade, Jock Landale and John Collins as potential additions that could make sense for Philly.
Flyers Draft Towering Defensemen Maksim Sokolovskii
Like the Sixers, the Flyers got to work on their draft day as well, welcoming six new players into the fold this past Friday and Saturday. Highlighting the draft class for the Flyers is Kazakh defenseman Maksim Sokolovskii. Sokolovskii, 17, is a 6-foot-7, 240 pound defensemen that plays with a mean streak and can suffocate opponents with his surprising mobility and gap control. To be sure, he’s still very much learning the nuances of the game and is likely to be considered a project-type of player, but does possess some upside as a shutdown, defense-first defender.
The rest of the orange and black’s draft went as followed:
- R2: Brek Liske
- R2: Martin Psohlavec
- R4: Marek Sklenička
- R5: KJ Sauer
- R7: Max Laatikainen
Free agency in the NHL is set to open on Wednesday, July 1st.
