THE THOMSON ERA: PHILS BETTER THAN METS, CARDS, YANKS, RAYS, JAYS!
By Sam Bush
The Phillies are 83-69 as they prepare to play the Cubs tonight in Chicago, and they are currently ensconced in third and last place in the wild card race, 1 1/2 games ahead of the Brewers and 1 1/2 games behind the Pads.
And The Athletic offers this wisdom:
Our own Ken Rosenthal wrote a mea culpa about the Phillies.
It was a nice gesture, but it wasn’t necessary. We all got it wrong.
That’s including the Phillies, who entered the season thinking that Joe Girardi was the answer. He was not. We all got it wrong.
The Phillies are 61-40 since the managerial switch to Rob Thomson, better than the Mets, Cardinals, Guardians, Yankees, Rays, Blue Jays and a whole mess of other teams in that span. They’ve picked up walk-off wins from unlikely heroes, and they’re in a great position to make the postseason.
And if they get into the postseason, they’ll need a bullpen that’s less Phillies-ish than bullpens in the past.
Enter Zach Eflin, who has emerged in September as a bat-missing reliever, the kind who could become a cult hero if he keeps doing this in October.
If they get to October. They’re 3-7 in their last 10 games, after all. But at least they’re not cooked like we all thought they were so many months ago.
