welcome into another episode of Locked on Phillies man this Victory shirt's getting worn down the Phillies win again five straight Ranger sarez looked awesome the offense created options this team is the best team in baseball again we'll talk about it on today's episode you are locked on Phillies your daily Philadelphia Phillies podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every [Music] day yes this is locked on Phillies I'm your host Conor Thomas we're part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day thank you so much for joining us today please make sure you're rating reviewing subscribing to the YouTube all that great stuff that helps us out it helps you out too when you subscribe to the YouTube it's free it takes like a second to do if you're watching us on YouTube just hit that subscribe button in the corner of your screen uh it gets you notifications when new episodes are posted so it really helps you out it helps me out it's a win-win win uh you may know me from some of my other work in the Sports Talk space I've been on the air 975 The Fanatic for five years now I've been credential Philadelphia Phillies media member for three seasons and this is my third season as the host of locked on Phillies today's episode is brought to you by prize picks go to priz picks.com loock on MLB and use code it's all in lowercase locked on MLB to win $50 instantly when you play $5 so go ahead and check out our friends over at prize pick I mean the Phillies I hate to say it right because my job doing this podcast is to give you interesting breakdowns of what happens in games and what's going on with the team and everything happening around baseball and frankly yesterday's game between the Phillies and the Marlins a 5-2 victory for the Phils uh it was it was pretty boring guys I mean the Phillies scored one run in the first inning and then nobody scored until the top of the sixth uh okay slow rager Suarez looked really good we'll talk about him in a second but then you go you score four in the sixth which was awesome including an absolute nuke Bryson stop bomb which should make you feel really good about where his swing's at right now you had some good opportunities to add more at points but you cashed in in the sixth which was good uh I don't know there were a couple good things there are a couple bad things the good Ranger Suarez like I told you uh he went five innings three hits allowed nowhere in r two walks 4K it's nothing amazing but he's still working his way back from that long injured list stint you don't want to overexert him too much you want to give him to a place where you think you're going to win the ball game and the Philadelphia Phillies accomplished that so rager Suarez gets the win he moves a 12 and six on the year the bullpen was solid I mean h you give up a run Lazar gives up a run and then also you have a run given up by Ryan kirking it wasn't an earned run so not as worried about that but the bullpen been fine and the offense created opportunities Bryson had two RB uh Cody Clemens had two RBI Cody Clemens seeing the ball pretty well right now do love to see that he played third base last night for the injured Alec bow we're gonna talk about Alec bow later on in the episode but I don't know right here's the way that I look at it and this is all due respect to the Marlins they do have a couple major league baseball players on that team they have a couple guys that I don't think are major league caliber at 52 and 88 uh Jake Burger is a good player and outside of that I don't know man what do they have so I don't want to call them like a AAA team but they kind of are not so muchat the white sock might be a double a team but the Marlins are probably like a AAA caliber team and it shouldn't be interesting if you went to just for example let's say there was a scrimmage at citizens back Park before the season started and the Phillies were playing the Lehigh Valley iron picks their Triple A affiliate would you expect that game to be interesting would you expect it to be close would you expect it to be anything besides that Philly just comfortably taking care of business no you wouldn't and that's what last night was it was just a very comfortable easy uh take down a team that's less than you and continue to plug your way away at the top of the standings in the National League and in all of baseball now Bryson's thought did have a nice night right like his two RB's the single in the first a little Q shot over the short Stop's head that was a nice piece of hitting the home runny hit was one of the longest home runs I've ever seen him hit it was a nuke it's listed as 406 feet but it felt a lot further than that that's squaring up a baseball that's a good sign Adam Aller didn't look bad for the Marlins but the Phillies took advantage um the Cody Clemens thing is interesting right we talked about him seeing the baseball well well he's been swinging the bat well seeing it well um the defense well we'll kind of figure out how he fits in as things go along he's not a plus plus Defender we've seen issues with Weston Wilson on that front when you do play those guys too much you could lead the situation where you're losing a little bit in the field but Alec B not available right now so if you can get uh well you got two RBI out of Cody Clemens last night on one swing in the sixth inning um and then he scored on a wild pitch so he created three runs basically on his Lonesome like that's an amazing thing to get for a player at that point the depth on this team is awesome we talked about it all year this was what was being showcased when we thought this team was the best team in baseball earlier on in the season now are we back to thinking the Phillies are the best team in baseball it may be time to have that conversation folks because they're just making it look easy right now but the schedule is easy right now and that's the part that you don't want to overstate but you kind of already like here's here's where I my takeaways from last night's game I don't try and do too much with it we know who this team is we know what they're going to be for the rest of the regular season right they have a relatively easy schedule they have one series with the Brewers they have a couple with the Mets outside of that it should be pretty take care of business type of schedule they built a little bit of a buffer between them and the Milwaukee Brewers when you look at the standings right now in the National League they're tied with the Dodgers at the top but because of the tie breaker the Phillies technically have the best record in the National League and the best record in baseball Milwaukee three games back what's important right now is to try and build that lead compared to the Milwaukee Brewers so you don't drop down into the wild card series with the uh the lowest Wild Card option right now believe that would be the New York Mets I don't know as the tiebreaker the Mets and the Braves are tied after the Braves lost to the Rockies last night so that's something to keep an eye on Atlanta could miss the playoffs Alto together which I hate to kick them while they're down with all the injuries they've been experiencing but I will I'm gladly will actually I don't even want to say I hate to do it if they miss the playoffs that would be awesome so yeah rooting for that but you also don't want to be in a situation where like let's say Atlanta's the last team in let's say the Mets are the last team in you got to play three games at the bank against a division rival and I'm not talking about a team like the Marlins last year where it was like very clear that they were not a team that was ready for the postseason yet uh those are teams that have a little bit of star power Francisco Andor who you're going to see coming up when the Phillies play the Mets in a little bit uh he's been having an unbelievable season uh we know how good the Braves can be at their best and we know that those teams are familiar with each other so I'd rather not have to worry about either of those teams I'd rather play a five-game series in the nlds so that you have a better opportunity for the better team to win the better team ideally being the Philadelphia Phillies if that all makes sense so you're just looking to build that buffer right between you and Milwaukee you and the Wild Card series find a way to win the division but here's the thing that I'll say too right I'll make this claim right now after the win over the Miami Marlins I feel comfortable doing this I'm going to say this in no uncertain terms the Philadelphia philes have an eight-game lead in the National League East over both the Mets and the Braves the Philadelphia Phillies are going to win the NL East you can book it you can put it in stone it is not changing 84 and 56 the record so some quick math will show you that is 140 games play they have 22 games left and they're 8 games up division over congrats Philadelphia Phillies you're gonna win the NL East you gotta obviously take care of business but it's a three-foot putt for Tiger Woods at this point it's not me or you at our local mun standing over a three-foot putt with our knees knocking no this is about as easy as it gets to say hey division wrapped up so goal accomplished one of the goals of the season I feel great about that the next goal is the first round buy the next goal is the top seed and then we turn into postseason baseball but remember when I told you that this Philadelphia Philly's schedule was set up perfectly for this team to get rolling heading into October this is what I mean they've got a lot of games against teams where it should just be like okay you're better go out and win 52 be comtable take that nice easy Victory go out hang eight on him you don't even have to worry about it uh save some arms in the bullpen let a starter go a little bit longer perfect oh Zack Wheeler's on the mound tonight dominant dominant dominant don't even worry about score three runs go home with your Victory like that's that's just kind of where we're at right now and we're kind of in the point of the Season where while there is seeding to be figured out and there will be interesting games we're in a bit of a lull the team's not in a lull they're winning and this shirt is getting it probably doesn't smell too good if I could smell nope still can't smell born without it by the way if you didn't know no sense of smell but um they're winning so much I got to get this thing in the laundry more often than I normally do like they're not slumping through but the impact level of these games just seem to significantly drop off and it'll ramp back up when you play the Milwaukee Brewers because that's going to be a huge series and it'll slow back down and then it'll ramp way up in the red October so we'll get there but for the time being like there's only so much to be taken away from 52 wins over the Miami Marlin when you know the ceiling of this team is best team in baseball and you're this close to the postseason already it's September what 6th yeah this is the time of the year where the big questions that come around are health and who's getting hot for the time of the year where you need it most which is September 15th on according to Yours Truly you may think it's even a little bit later later on in the year than that just so you don't get hot early have two weeks hot and then cool off going into the postseason no this is the right trajectory for the Philadelphia Phillies to be on I feel pretty darn good about it coming up next we're going to talk about the Phillies potentially making this six wins in a row they send Wheels to the mound tonight and it's a great opportunity to take another game against the Marlins are they capable of doing that well I don't think there's many things that Zack Wheeler isn't capable of doing we'll discuss coming up next on locked on [Music] Phillies first 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two of the Philadelphia Phillies series with the Miami Marlins I already told you the big story line of tonight's game a 7:10 PM first pitch now this may not be the most watched game in the world because uh I don't know if you've heard if you're Philadelphia sports fan but the Philadelphia Eagles play football tonight go ahead and check out our friends over at locked on Eagles for the latest that you need to know I don't mind cross promoting that at all they do great work over there I'm a huge Birds fan I was Weare of my Jaylen Herz Jersey this morning on the radio underneath the victory shirt so we had a little double up on Philadelphia sports support but this could be one of those games where you watch a couple Innings and you say Okay Zack Wheeler's dealing we know that we're in a situation you can win this ball game and that's kind of the key to this one right uh with wheeler on the mound and Edward Cabrera throwing for the Marlins like you have a significant significant Advantage the Phillies are minus 235 on the money line huge favorites according to Vegas they have a 71.3% chance according to ESPN analytics they are largely favored just like they're going to be in every game of this series but Zack Wheeler has not really been good down in Miami it's one of his bottom five ballparks in Major League Baseball as far as the average statistics per start down there so is it that he doesn't really face the Marlins well is it that building he doesn't like the mound is it the fact that he likes to get up for big starts and maybe those starts that feel a little bit less impactful to a bit of a mental lapse I don't know I don't know what it is it could be that he likes the crowd noise and likes the feel like he's pitching in an actual Major League Baseball game and it's hard to get that feeling down in Miami especially when that team is 52 and 88 whatever the case I'd love to see a great start from Wheels his whip 0.98 his ra 2.63 he's on Pace to be in the Sai Young conversation if it ended today he'd probably be second in the National League to Chris S down there in Atlanta there's nothing to say that that can't make make a quick little flipflop at the end of the season though Chris SES fully deserving of the sa young if the season ended today but it doesn't so Wheeler's pitching for some individual uh potential accolades and he's also pitching incredibly this year helping the Philadelphia Phillies get to where they need to be Edward Cabrera has a 533 ER and a 147 whip he's allowing a base runner at half an inning he's allowing about five well more than five runs per nine which means probably per start 76 Innings uh you're looking at you should be able to score three or four off of Edward Cabrera in probably the five innings he's gonna go five maybe six Innings he's gonna go like I feel very good about the Philadelphia philes ability hey look at it another righty who would have guessed a long stream of righties which is something interesting to keep an eye on I've been mentioning this over and over and over again I think the only righty or non- righty theyve faced as a starter for the past two weeks has been Max freed in that brave series everyone else has just been righty righty righty righty which means this team's in a Groove Kyle schorer stayed a little warm last night so you're going to be looking at him Bryson St mashed a baseball last night is he starting to show a little bit of a stretch where he could create something Cody Clemens if he back in the game at third base for Alec bow we'll keep you updated on what the lineup looks like when we get an idea let me double check and see whether or not it's out I don't believe it should be out right now I'm recording this at about 130 uh so let's peek and see if Alec B's going to make his return no there is no notification on whether or not Alec B will be back in the lineup so who knows but if it's Cody Clemens again maybe he has a big day I would love to see Bryce Harper finally hit the ball out of the ballpark again like that would be ideal but those are the offensive players you're kind of watching it's really hard to pick up on storylines in this series because again you're playing a team that you should beat basically every time and until the Phillies do something that makes you worry about where they're at right now the narrative stays the same they're a juggernaut baseball team that is playing like it once again as somebody decides that revving their engine in the middle hey don't you know that this is a good basball podcast living in the city must be a Marlins fan uh bottom line is like what do you really want me to say about Phillies Marlins that hasn't already been said especially with Zack wheer on the mount you're better they're not good you're playing for something they're not your offense is great their offense thinks your pitcher is great their pitcher below average like go beat him it's very simple and that doesn't have anything to do with whether or not Alec B is available that doesn't have to deal with whether or not by the way Bryce Harper we were questioning like whether or not he would play in game one in Miami played last night I didn't mention that so he looked fine he looked good to go we talked about do you sit Bryce Harper and I thought maybe you would but if he tells you hey man doctors cleared me I'm good to go how do you tell Bryce Harper we don't want you to play so like that's whatever as long as he healthy come postseason we're fine and I read you what he said about how he doesn't think it's going to get better from just a day or two of rest so I don't have any issues with the strategy that the Philadelphia philes used with Bryce Harper um I don't know I could up I could go up and down the lineup frankly and I could say hey this guy this guy this guy this guy like basically all of them should have big days against Edward Cabrera he's not that great of a pitcher and he hasn't been having that great of a year uh one thing I do want to bring up that I want to see though like what you can't do and Johan roas made this mistake yesterday what you can't do in a sleepy environment down in Miami not that it's going to cost you ball games but it's just not good practice it's it's building bad habits and I don't want to see this baseball team do this in September I'm gonna start sounding like folks sounded in July now the difference is I'm doing it at an appropriate time of the year when I need to start seeing this team tighten things up because postseason is right around the corner uh but what I can't see is Adam all walk one and then walk two and you get into the situation where it's like okay you have now bases loaded and you've seen two straight walks and not many competitive pitches in those bats pretty quick walks and Yan roas comes up and immediately hits a ground ball to second base that's a double play that gets him out of the inning like that's just a miserable uh approach of the plate I don't know if that leads the roas sitting tonight and not getting the opportunity to play if you're gonna send a message to a player well the Miami Marlin series is a good time to do that because you should be able to win this game and this series anyway but like you can't I don't know if that was giving it a bad away I don't know if that's just a mental lapse whatever the case is you cannot give those opportunities away against a struggling pitcher that's just bad baseball and this is a team that you don't have to think too much about with the Miami Marlin so you shouldn't get into any of those like mental lapses take care of the little stuff do everything right you will come out on top of these games but if you start doing things like swing it pitches way out of the Zone not eliminating breaking balls that the guy can't spot uh seeing two guys get walked and then immediately first pitch grounding into a double play to end an inning that's the stuff that's going to bother me it's going to bother Rob Thompson it's going to lose you playing time and in the postseason it's going to kill you when you play better opponent so tighten that stuff up a little bit I'm using Johan Ross as an example I don't mean to pick on the kid but he was the one who did it last night there are other guys that have' given away a bats throughout the season I mean basically everybody gives a bats away throughout the season but just stuff to keep an eye on as we try and manufacture story lines in a series that is so lopsided like Philly Marlins coming up next though we do have a storyline that's getting kind of interesting what in the world's going on with Alec bone and what's up with his left hand I'll give you the latest that I've heard on as we wrap up today's episode what I got to tell you about prize picks first prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app they got over five million active members priz pick is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily 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Ends you have less than a month to take advantage of that they're always running cool promotions and stuff like that or you can build your lineup of baseball players football players whatever you're feeling download the prize pick app today and use code locked on MLB and you'll get $50 instantly when you play $ five do that's code locked on MLB on prize picks to get $50 instantly when you play $5 you don't even need to win to receive the $50 bonus you can make the worst picks in the world you could be an idiot like me and go out there and say oh okay I think this guy's gonna have this many hits and that guy's gonna have a home run and all this stuff and get totally wrong that $50 bonus is guaranteed so go ahead and check it out with prize picks run your game with prize picks all right thank you so much for making locked on Philly is your first listen every day I appreciate it very much now make your second listen locked on MLB I tell you about it all the time Paul Francis Sullivan Sully he hosts that podcast he does an outstanding job he is interesting funny knowledgeable if you haven't listened to him check him out and this time of year when the Phillies are kind of in a series against the Mars where I'm telling you like kind of a boring series or at least it should be and if the Phils take care of business it will be that's a guy you want to go check out see what's going on around the rest of baseball see what people are feeling about the Braves maybe not making the postseason what's going on with the Dodgers out west can the Phillies really be the one seed in the National League are the Brewers collapsing or are they gonna make another push for the two- seed all of these things you can check it out on locked on MLB Sully covers all of it including the American League so go ahead and check it out part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day available on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast now this Alec B situation is interesting because remember he left a game a couple days ago after making a weird swing so we made the weird swing and then he goes out H and his left hand has like some soreness and swelling and he went back out there or I guess he continued the atat goes out for an inning then comes out and replac by I believe it was ad Mundo Sosa that replaced him in that game at the time and you're like okay well don't think it's anything serious keeping an eye on him but we're not going to put him on the injured list be a couple days maybe a game maybe two games and then hopefully he'll be back and now it's been four games that he's been out of and you start to get a little antsy John Kade who I work with on the morning show can Kaden Sal chunis over at 975 The Fanatic was talking to me about it this morning he's like you getting a little bit nervous about bom and my answer off the bat was nah not really because if the Phil tell you it's nothing serious that probably means that they've done their due diligence to say it's nothing serious like it's doesn't seem like it's a break it doesn't seem like it's anything like major like tendon or muscle related like just some swelling the hand's probably a little bit sensitive it's not going down as quickly as they'd like it to but hey they can get things wrong they can see things weird on scans so I'm not saying you're out of the woods yet I'm just saying my gut feeling is probably not in too bad of shape and Alec bow is a little bit different than Bryce Harper in that Bryce Harper is a superum when Bryce Harper tears his UCL he's like I okay I'll play in two months like he's crazy the average player isn't like that and sometimes we forget seeing how quickly Bryce Harper comes back or how much he plays through things the average player is not Bryce Harper so for Alec bow what maybe would be like a one day absence well it turns into three days four days five five days and you're like okay well now we're in a situation where people might get a little bit more nervous when in actuality the team is just being cautious because he doesn't heal the same way I think it's a caution thing because you don't really have a great option to third base if Al B's not there I like it Mundo Sosa not a plus guy defensively honestly it's crazy to say I never thought two two or three years ago I'd say this but I'd much rather have Alec B defensively at third base and I'd certainly much rather have him offensively at third base he was the All-Star starter at third base in the National League this year like that's a valuable valuable player for the postseason so what you're going to rush him back for games against the Marlins no like you're gonna play him in this series where you should be able to take care of business without him no reason to and that doesn't say like oh well I'm nervous about it that says we understand where we're at we understand where we can get to without Alec B for the time being any days you can get away with resting guys right now you're fine this is the rest Peri right from now until the 15th so you have 11 more days 11 more days nine more days not a math guy I've told you a billion times I'm not a math guy please don't make fun of me in the comments uh you have nine more days until you hit that stretch where it's just like okay we go from you can rest guys to we better start getting guys back in the lineup ramping them up you have to play so that you're seeing pitching so that you're hitting the ground running in October and that's when we'll start to get nervous about Alec bone but I don't see any way it takes it that far now they could always go back and put him on the injured list and retroactive him to the day that he sustained the leftand injury but what I'm hearing is it could be like tonight tomorrow like it could happen quickly in the series that he is back he is down there in Miami with the team if it was anything more serious he wouldn't have traveled they probably would have sent him back to Philly so who knows but I wouldn't get overly concerned I'm Gonna Knock on Wood here but the Philadelphia Phillies I can't believe I'm saying this this is a stupid thing to say but I already started the thought and you're going to I don't want to leave you uh on a cliffhanger if you're sitting at home listening or watching the Philadelphia Phillies have dodged a lot of bullets injury-wise this season think about it Bryce Harper Kyle schwarber TR Turner Ranger Suarez Alec bone Brandon Marsh all these guys are kind of on and off well or not on and off but a JT Romo had knee surgery like they have been significant injuries that could have been wow three months four months season ending stuff if it was a little bit worse but instead you're getting away with like a month absence here a three-week absence here this that this that where you can survive that where you're actually getting everybody back healthy at a pretty darn good time and now okay you get a little bit nervous the tighter you get because if you get like a month-long injury at this point in the season you're missing part of October that signic signicantly hampers his team's ability to compete for a World Series so that's why you want to be cautious but again I'll knock on wood a second time the Phillies have been lucky with injuries over the past really three years outside the ree Hoskins ACL tear and that's a really good sign for October and hopefully it's more of that for Alec bow so I'm not concerned about the bow thing at least not yet it is a situation to monitor maybe he plays the Knight if so hell yeah we're good to go if not I would like to justify it as their him because it's the Marlins and they're being overly cautious and then we'll move on as we re-evaluate that in the future we'll talk about that further on Monday's episode if that is a talking point or hopefully it's just hey man he was back here's what he did in the games over the weekend two more games of the weekend I told you the expectation win three out of four if you can win all four great but with Seth Johnson guy getting called up to start on Sunday throwing for the Phillies who knows take care of the ones that your best starters are throwing and Zack Wheeler is your best starter he's throwing ton night Phillies need to win this one that's all for today's episode of lockon Phillies thank you so much for checking us out I really do appreciate it please make sure you're rating reviewing subscribing to the YouTube all that stuff that really helps us out that I told you about at the top of the episode one more time we're part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day we've got the weekend coming up talk to you on Monday hopefully it's a series win and maybe even a series sweep and I'm going to go watch this Victory shirt because I'm sure this thing is is yeah probably pretty smelly I do believe that that's a good thing it means the Phils are winning I'll talk to you Monday on the next episode of lockon Phillies