After the Girardi firing, much was unknown. Will they be better? Could they get any worse? Will there be more energy? That is still TBD, but making the Angels go from a seven-game losing streak to now an 11-game losing streak sure looks like they’re heading in the right direction.
The offense was on fire this series. Bryce Harper (of course) lead the team in batting average with a beautiful .400 average with three of his four hits being home runs, including the game-tying grand slam. He was definitely “the guy” for the offense this series and has been the bright spot for this team the entire season. Bryson Stott deserves recognition this series. He hit .273 and hit his first two home runs with the second one being a walk-off three-run home run. He looks to be getting comfortable in the big leagues. The Phillies had a total of 26 runs on 26 hits with seven of those being home runs. Ball went boom when needed.
The pitching was great this weekend. Knebel allowed a run in the ninth inning in game three and Gibson allowed five runs in 3.1 innings that same game, but other than that the pitching was very solid. All of them kept Trout and Ohtani silent, which is very impressive. The most impressive stat to me is the combined ERA for our pitchers was 2.67. With the bullpen blowing leads like no other, seeing them keep the leads was very refreshing. Zach Eflin’s 8IP, 5H, 0ER, and 1BB make him “the guy” for the pitchers this series. Pitching eight innings is huge for saving our bullpen and it definitely contributed to how well they did this series.
This was a fun series to watch, but there is still a lot of work they need to do to not only get into at least the wild card spot, but to get over .500. Maton and Camargo getting injured lessens our infield depth a lot, but with DiDi back and Maton only on the 10-day IL, there is no need to worry. They travel to Milwaukee for a three-game series next. Go Phils.
