PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies are winning games at such a torrid pace that you have to go back to the halcyon days when Grover was a hot name in America to find anything like what Philly’s favorite team has already achieved this season.
Take left-handed ace Ranger Suárez.
Suárez, 28, is 9-0 with a 1.36 ERA, the third-lowest ERA by a Phillies pitcher in his first 10 starts of the season. Suárez is second only to Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander, who had a 1.24 ERA in his first 10 starts in 1916 and a 1.31 ERA in his first 10 starts in 1915.
Or how about the whole team?
Riding high on the best record in baseball, the Phillies are 29-6 over their last 35 games, which matches the best 35-game stretch in franchise history, last done in 1892.
Who can forget the presidential election of 1892, when Grover Cleveland defeated Benjamin Harrison to become the only president elected to two non-consecutive terms?
Grover may be unfashionable these days as a first name — with apologies to the furry monster in blue, if the Phillies win it all, they’ll parade down Broad instead of Sesame Street — but the Phillies are still rocking winning streaks like they did more than 130 years ago.
The Phillies are 37-14 and lead the NL East by six games over the Atlanta Braves as they open a six-game road trip Friday at Colorado.
They’re winning at a pace that not even Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt or Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard could muster this early in the season. Their recent streaks are as impressive as a Schwarbomb: Philadelphia is 17-3 in May, debuted with the best 50-game start in baseball since the 2001 Seattle Mariners and has now won seven series, the most recent a three-man about the World Series champion Texas Rangers.
“This is the best team I’ve ever been a part of,” said right fielder and 12-year veteran Nick Castellanos.
The root of the early season can be found in last season’s postseason failure. A year after a surprise run to the World Series in 2022 that saw them lose to the Houston Astros, the Phillies lost their 2-0 and 3-2 NL Championship Series leads to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2023.
Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Bryce Harper and Castellanos were 5-for-53 (.094) with 11 walks, 22 strikeouts and two RBIs in Philadelphia’s four NLCS losses. Against six Arizona pitchers in Game 7, the four were 1-for-15 (.067) with five strikeouts and no RBI.
“I had a really hard time enjoying any part of the offseason, even when I was on vacation, just because of the way that bitter season ended,” Castellanos said.
The Phillies suffered the kind of franchise crushing defeat that often leads to a roster overhaul. Maybe one of their free-swinging hitters will be traded for an arm. Maybe they let some free agents walk.
Instead, team president Dave Dombrowski largely stood his ground.
In sports parlance, the Phillies decided to backtrack.
They signed local right-hander Aaron Nola to a seven-year, $172 million contract. They signed manager Rob Thomson to an extension through 2025. They eliminated any potential distractions Zack Wheeler may have had in the final year of his contract by signing him to a three-year extension worth $126 million.
“There’s kind of a win-win,” Thomson said. “They want to break up.”
Why destroy a good thing?
“The fact that we were able to face adversity together (and) feel loss together only improves our bond as a group,” Castellanos said. “Hats off to the ownership and management for believing in pieces that were already here.”
The Phillies boasted a payroll of $243,476,617 on opening day, a far cry from 2002, when The New York Times writer Murray Chass described the franchise as “a big-market team masquerading as an aid recipient.” small market social”.
Oh sure, Harper is on fire again, with 12 homers. JT Realmuto has hit a career-high 13 consecutive games. Third baseman Alec Bohm is second in the NL with 46 RBIs and tops in baseball with 20 doubles.
Yes, the Phillies can attack.
But it’s a throwback approach to the rotation that sees him as the best in baseball.
Phillies starters have thrown at least seven innings in 18 games this year, the most in baseball.
“They all obviously have positive things,” Realmuto said. “But just the fact that they all throw multi-pitch strikes and can attack hitters in different ways within the strike zone makes them really difficult to plan for and have success with. Just throwing different pitches in different counts and they all strike when they want, that’s rare in this game and we have a lot of guys that can do that.
So yes, maybe the Phillies are keeping it old school, in comparisons to the best teams and players in franchise history, and to a way of thinking that puts them at the top of baseball.
They know, though, that every time they look past another packed house and at the 1980 and 2008 World Series flags flying at Citizens Bank Park, a record-breaking start means nothing without a championship finish.
“It’s cool. But again, we all know what we want to accomplish,” said reliever Matt Strahm. “Other Phillies clubs have won the World Series and that’s the most impressive thing. So that’s what we want to do.”
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