welcome into another episode of Locked on Phillies the Phils are on a roll folks they sweep out the Blue Jays in a short two game series they are playing great baseball right now we'll break it all down on today's episode you are locked on Phillies your daily Philadelphia Phillies podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every 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 you may know me for some of my other work in the Sports Talk Radio space five years over on 975 The Fanatic on the radio talking Sports here in Philadelphia three years of credential Philadelphia Phillies media member and this is my third year as the host of locked on Phillies thank you so much for uh joining us today and please make sure you're rating reviewing subscribing to the YouTube all that great stuff that really helps us out here on locked on Phillies thisis episode is brought to you by priz pi go to priz picks.com lockon MLB and you can use code it's all in lowercase locked on MLB to win $50 instantly when you play $5 a great deal for our friends over at prize piics and a great deal by the Phillies lately they just keep winning ball games folks I got to take a little bit real quick just off the top sometimes you know you just you do these stupid superstitious things you think H maybe it does something maybe it's just a break up the monotony of the Season maybe you actually believe in it well the victory shirt is 14 and6 since it came back I'm not saying I saved the Philadelphia Phillies but they were in a bad bad stretch and uh this bad boy got breaking out breaking out broken out last year they were 60 and 42 since I started wearing this Phillies Hawaiian shirt the victory shirt after wins Big Time turnaround in June this year they're 14- six so the amount 74 and 48 the total record of the victory shirt never spent a day the Phillies have never been under 500 in the time that the victory shirt has been worn in those segments not just their record for the season but the record during those stretches of game so is it magical it may be it just might be but the Philadelphia philes baseball that they're playing right now is magical so let's get into the actual team that's actually doing the stuff yesterday a really nice win like it was just a a really comfortable win for the Philadelphia Phillies right they didn't really put the game away it wasn't like it was a 10 nothing comfortable win but it's just like they did everything the right way Kyle schwarber my God tip of the cap good sir Kyle schwarber he went yard again to lead off the game it's his 13th leadoff home run of the year his second and as many games he had three home runs in game one he had one home run yesterday afternoon that dude hit four home runs in two games Canada I told you in yesterday's episode banned Kyle schwarber I warned you it was going to happen again and he went out and he made you pay he makes it one- nothing but then just like the other game in the series the game one now it wasn't six runs in the first inning but Christopher Sanchez goes out and gives up two runs in the bottom of the first so the leadoff home run by Kyle schorer was erased once again kind of wild you two leadoff home runs and your team is down at the end of the first inning in both of those games not the best way to go about creating winning baseball but the Phillies don't care they become comeback kids they've won four of their last six games via the comeback some bigger than others game one of this series a huge one yesterday not so big because they were down one run after the first and then in the second inning Cody Clemens who was one of the September call-ups for the Philadelphia Phillies comes to the plate and he deposits one in the seats a two-run bomb that makes it three to2 the Phillies would not Rel to lead the rest of the way the only other run scored in this game after the top of the second inning was JT rido with a solo shot in the top of the ninth to give you a little bit of breathing room and that was a beautiful thing the Philadelphia Phillies needed that to make the bottom of the ninth a little bit less stressful let's talk about the pitching because the pitching was really like outside of Cody Clemens g schwarber j tro three home runs in this game but not a lot of offense in between a total number of hits for the Phillies eight so it's not awful but it wasn't anything incredible at the play like they did the first night in Toronto the pitching was the calling card of this win Christopher Sanchez went out and gave you seven strong Innings seven strikeouts six hits allowed two earned runs both in that first inning of work after that he was locked down so six clean Innings from him the Phillies have now won 32 straight games I think it's either 31 or 32 I think it's 32 straight games that their starting pitcher has gone seven Innings or more now me being the stupid person that I am and I do mean this is stupid I would just throw every starter seven Innings you're struggling throw them seven maybe there's something magical about it no that's not how it goes basically what that says though is you have a lot of great pitchers and when they're going good your team's GNA win a simple formula but every once in a while there's this sense of Randomness to baseball and that's why the stretch that they're on right now with starter throwing seven plus Innings and winning those games well it's one of the greatest in the history of baseball an amazing mark and it shows you that when they get starters throwing well and they get a lead earlyish in the game they find a way to Victory it's a great sign for October because if you can keep these guys healthy and you can hit October with some rested ready arms Nola wheeler Suarez Sanchez take your chances against anybody if you get those guys out there with good start so that feels great the bullpen great work by them Jeff Hoffman in the eighth inning shut down eighth one strike out Carlos Estes he did walk a guy in the ninth the tying run was at the plate the run that would cut the lead the one was at second but he had two strikeouts he worked out of it got out of the game the Philadelphia Phillies win both up in Toronto and both by ways of the comeback I I I want to talk about that real quick right because we've given a lot of individual players their love but man oh and something else sorry real quick before we get into that how how go I forget Bryce Harper was hit by a pitch in his elbow it was his left elbow it's not his throwing arm remember bats left throws right so his back elbow is his left elbow and he was taken out of the game had an elbow contusion they looked at it and didn't seemed to be overly overly serious Rob Thompson said after the game if you really needed harp to stay in the game he probably could have don't think it's anything serious it was more precautionary he felt a little stiffness after he got hit so I understand that we're going to discuss in the final segment of today's episode what you do with Bryce Harper going forward with that elbow issue cons considering he has another elbow issue and a wrist issue do you give him a couple days do you give him one day do you play him theight through it we'll break down all those options later on in the episode but Bryce Harper leaves this game doesn't seem to be anything serious but it is something worth monitoring because it's Bryce Harper and he has a couple other things that we talked about him being banged up in episode two days ago so you can go back and check out that for my overall thoughts on his General Health right now but back to the point I was going to make on the team as a whole I don't know if it's a good thing or not that the Philadelphia philes have made so many comebacks four of the last six games have been comeback victories mean they were trailing at some point in the game and not every game is going to be a wire-to-wire lead uh but I'm talking about like legitimate comebacks from situations early on in games where you thought they might be in trouble giving up runs early being down large deficits whatever the case may be there have been points of doubt in four of the last six well maybe all of them depending on how much doubt that you have but there's two ways to look at it the positive way is this team is going to fight their rear ends off to find a way to win a baseball game whether they're down 6-1 after the first inning or whether they're up 6-1 after the first inning their focus their mentality is we are not ever out of a baseball game and when they're playing well like they are right now that can build momentum that can build faith that can lead to not giving it bats up that can lead to Major comebacks like we saw the first game in the series against the Blue Jays it also gives you confidence when you're up you're like w man we'd be fine if we were down three we're up one heck yeah let's roll and you close out teams but the flip side of the coin that's the positive side always the side I look at first right I love the fight that this Philadelphia Phillies baseball team has been showing lately that's been one of their biggest differences between the slump and where they're at now they never feel out of a ball game they always believed they're going to win it felt like they got to a place where they believed man we take the field we may lose today we may not have our best stuff the pitcher might not go all that deep depending on who it is the offense can't really figure it out baseball's such a mentally tough sport the negative part of these comebacks is well I don't love that you're having situations where you're going to have to have comeback wins like the first part of the year they had a couple comeback wins for sure you have to when you played as many games as well as the Philadelphia Phillies did but they also had a lot of games where they were clearly the better team start to finish they didn't have any concerns any worries anything like that the sample size much bigger at the start of the year but I don't know if I'd make a habit if I'm the Philadelphia Phillies of trying to come back in all these games not that they're trying to do that but like it's not a great place to be in September you can get away with it in October it's a totally different field imagine this you're in Toronto you go down two to one at the end of the first inning you saw it yesterday what's the mentality man okay we punch they punch back time to go to work time to find a way to fight into this deficit we got plenty of time left let's make something happen Roger Center in September cool that works now fast forward and let's say it's October and you're playing the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series and I know that's a long way away from now and you got other stuff to take care of between here and there let's say you go out though and Otani goes yard and Freeman goes yard and the next thing you know you're down three nothing at the end of the first inning and you're playing the Dodger Stadium and Chavez Ravine is rocking and they've got who knows on the mouth one of their solid arms it's going to feel a lot different playoff deficits one two three runs feel like three four five runs it's a difference of maybe like a two to three run feel in the postseason depending on the crowd noise and the environment that you're playing in so playing from behind again not a habit that I want to see the Philadelphia Phillies develop winning games where you're behind we'll take those all day I'm not worried about it I'm just saying like something to keep an eye on I'd like to see the Philadelphia Philly start to win games in a more comfortable fashion but we'll take wins any way we can get them after the stretch that they went through you know the old saying absence makes the heart grow fonder when you spend time away from something you realize how much you truly appreciate it whether that's a person or an object or a Philadelphia sports team when you get time away from winning you start to cherish how much winning means it feels better to win now than it did at the start of the season because you went from expecting it to expecting them to lose to now oh my goodness I thought we'd never see the end of that stretch so drink it in Philadelphia enjoy your baseball team right now they're playing damn good baseball and they're in great position as far as the standings are concerned we'll take a look at that coming up and we'll look at the series with the Miami Marlins that starts tonight down in South Florida as we can continue today's episode of Locked on Phillies but let's talk about prize picks first you know I have to prize pick is America's number one daily fantasy sports app they got over 5 million active members it's the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports unlike other 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you play five do you don't even need to win to receive the $50 bonus it's guaranteed so check them out prize picks run your game with prize picks all right let's get into the series with the Miami Marlins because there's no reason to slow down the momentum now you're playing a bad Marlins team and you're playing them on the road which I guess matters a little bit not really when you're down there uh and there's an empty empty stadium in Miami I I'm not too worried about the crowd or lack thereof against the Marlins they're 52 and 87 they sold like crazy at the trade deadline there's just their season's over it's been over they know it's been over they got guys playing for pride they have a bunch of guys though that are not talented enough to hang with his Philadelphia Phillies team so let's look at the pitching matchups in this series just a quick overview of what you're gonna see and Ranger Suarez is on the mound tonight versus Adam Aller you're looking at Adam Aller as a guy that you should take advantage up we'll get more into that specific one since that's tonight's game but four games some good pitching matchups wheeler on the mound for game two against Edward Cabrera Advantage Phillies Zack Wheeler is clearly the better pitcher than anyone in the Miami Marlins organization or on the Miami marins current Major League roster Aron Nola gets the ball game three against dared McCollin and that's another name that if you don't recognize it's probably because he has an 824 ER Advantage arinola major advantage Philadelphia Phillies the final game on Sunday you're going to see Max Meyer on the mound for the Miami Marlins but the Phillies announced today that Seth Johnson is GNA throw now he was a acquired in the Gregory sto trade with the Baltimore Orioles a guy that's been in the minors he was a 2020 two draft pick I believe but he was like a j shortstop or no he actually may have been back more than that bottom line is he's like a converted pitcher from when he was drafted he's throwing heat upper 90s you're going to get to see him at the major league level and he was one of the higher ranked prospects I believe he was in the top 10 prospects for the Baltimore Orioles a nice righty that gets to go out on the mound and tow the rubber for the Philadelphia Phillies I told you Tyler Phillips I don't know if you can let him make his next start well the Phillies are trying out Seth Johnson you're now in September where you can get these call up send Downs with some young players where you don't have to worry about anything as far as options are concerned so Seth Johnson's the pick to finish out that game that'll be interesting we'll cross that bridge when we get to it if you win the first three cool if you win two of the first three well then that becomes a little bit more of a hey Seth we need you to step up for us buddy but the hope is you can take care of the Miami morins in the first three games of the series and then the only thing Seth Johnson is pitching for is for the sweep now that'll be an interesting look because I think Seth Johnson could be an arm that you use whether it's Bullpen or a backend starter in the future I know you have Sanchez locked down you have wheeler locked down you have Nola locked down you hope to have Suarez locked down at some point soon but that fifth spot is open is it Andrew painter it certainly doesn't seem like it's going to be time won Walker anytime in the future does that potentially become Seth Johnson at some point I don't know but kid gets to make the start gets the ball on Sunday an interesting decision by the Phillies that I wholeheartedly agree with because I didn't want to see Tyler Phillips again back to tonight's game though as we dive deeper into the ranger Suarez Adam Aller matchup Suarez has been good this year very good but he hasn't been all that consistent since he's come back from injury you look at his last couple of starts really good one kind of questionable one right he was really good in Kansas City five innings so not that much work but only four hits allowed only one earned run six strikeouts great then against Atlanta his last time out four Innings pitched five hits four earned runs just got smoked gave up two bombs walked one he did strike out six but it wasn't the typical Ranger Suarez performance where he's getting all these ground balls what's he going to be who knows we're going to have to see when he goes out there he's still working his way back but there's no better time to work your way back than a team like than against a team I should say like the Miami Marlins I mean look at some of these offensive statistics for Miami they're batting 240 as a team they've hit 128 home runs for example the Phillies 169 they're on base percentage 296 it's not awful but they're slugging percentage 372 that ain't scaring anybody you just look at it they're not that good of a baseball team even and that's including their stats before they sold guys like jazz Chism like basically you got Jake Burger that's the only guy on the team that you're worried about and he leads their team still in home runs average and RBI he was unbelievable last time the Phillies played the Marlins uh remember the Marlins series the last one two game series up in Philly the time that I put on this Victory shirt so we made it back around to another appearance and now Marlins you're not going to get a free game like you did last time the magic shirt is here uh but no as long as you stay away from Jake Burger you should be totally fine when it comes to Adam all it's another right-handed pitcher the Phillies keep just keep seeing righties like Max freed was mixed in there once but it's been mostly righties over the past two weeks for the Phillies they seem to be in a Groove against them does Kyle schwarber have a third straight leadoff Homer in him maybe I that'd be a crazy thing to bet on um does Bryce Harper show himself in the lineup tonight that's going to be a question because that's going to change some things if he doesn't it'll be probably Cody Clemens over there first base okay he's seeing the ball right he had a home run yesterday I love that we know consistently he's not the player that you need at the major league level but in small spurts he can be so maybe another good game for Cody Clemens but let's look at it this way right from an offensive perspective against a right-handed pitcher the guys you'd expect to be big time are schwarber and Harper those are your big- time Lefty bats well schwarber's been redh hot but you can't expect him to keep hitting home runs every game so I'm going to take him out of the equation Harper may not play tonight because of getting hit in the elbow we're going to talk about that coming up I'm going to take him out of the equation in case he doesn't uh play who are your other Lefty bats well Brandon Marsh and Bryson's thought they could be really really big in this game I'd expect if Bryce Harper's out then to be lifted a little bit higher in the lineup you're also going to need some righties to step up same-handed this match ups Trey Turner is GNA have to be big time I'm not saying K horber can't have a great game I'm just saying eventually he's G to not hit a home run every single game or have a monster lead off home run or stuff like that it would feel natural that there's a regression to the meme considering how hot he is or he could just keep slugging bombs and make me look like I have no idea what I'm talking about and I'd be just fine with that as well I'm right sometimes I'm wrong sometimes I'm doing that as more of a precaution because it's unfair to expect him to keep up how hot he's been but how great is it how good Kyle schwarber's been so those are the guys I'm looking at Trey Turner as the table setter Stott and Marsh is the guys that make up for Harper and maybe if shorer doesn't carry the load the same way uh even though he still can you should win this game tonight the Phillies on the money line are minus 240 favorites Big Time favorites according to ESPN analytics they have nearly a 75% chance to win tonight's ball game like they're winning tonight they they should be I'm not using the CT guarantee I save that for special times but they're the much better team the biggest thing that I want to see is Ranger Suarez go out and have a strong start I think the offense will be just fine I want to see ranger look like he's the guy that you can trust in the postseason because he's only got a handful of starts more less than a handful probably what this and then three more starts before this season is wrapped up and you're in a position to maybe get a guy a rest day or two it's time to start ramping up for October and Rangers Wars needs to do that coming up next though we're gonna talk about a guy that might need to ramp down for October is that possibly the plan for Bryce Harper we'll discuss as we wrap up lock on Phillies all right let me tell 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making locked on Philly is your first listen every day again part of locked on podcast Network your team every day now make your second listen locked on MLB Paul Francis Sullivan Sully he's the best he covers baseball in totality not just the Phillies not just specific team know everything going on which is perfect for this time of year so check out locked on MLB available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast make that your second listen right when you're done this episode Bryce Harper gets hit in the elbow right and we also talked earlier this week about elbow soreness and wrist soreness and issues going on there and all this stuff that he's dealing with and now he gets hit and he gets pulled from the game Rob Thompson says it's precautionary but it puts you in a very precarious spot with Bryce Harper because I'm going to let you guys in on a little secret actually this is something it's good that I have a credential because I get to uh learn this cool inside information about the team every once in a while that I get to share with you uh so keep this between us don't tell anybody because they might get mad if I tell you um Bryce Harper's pretty damn important to the Philadelphia Phillies yeah he is shock right so you need him ready for October and that means that if you can get away with giving him days off now ahead of October and make sure he's in as good a shape as possible could benefit you in the long run I know you're trying to lock down the first round by I know you still got a chance to chase down the Dodgers for the one seat I mean just taking a Peak at where they are in the standings now with the second best record in baseball the Philadelphia Phillies they're a half game back of the Dodgers by the way two and a half up on the Milwaukee Brewers so that lead for the first round buy is growing kind of wild that the Brewers have the third best record in baseball I don't think that team is as good as the record indicates but I think they divisions think so maybe that's something to do with it bottom line you have a chance to get Bryce haror rest days because of the amount of buffer you've built up you still need to win baseball games though so there needs to be a balance the other thing is well how injured is Bryce Harper and how much will it help him to get off days he talked about it recently and he said he doesn't know if he takes a day or two off like he feels like when he comes back from a day or two like let's just say he doesn't play the first two games against the Marl he's got off Thursday he's got off Friday he plays Saturday he said like I don't know if and I'm paraphrasing here I don't know if when I come back Saturday like I'm gonna feel any better it's probably gonna feel about the same it hasn't really been getting better with off days remember the wrist has been something that's been bothering him since May he had days off for the All-Star break didn't fix it he had days off on either side of the London trip didn't fix it I don't know how long the elbow problems been going on for it but it hasn't really fixed that getting hit in the elbow this time is a different thing it may not even have kept him out under normal circumstances of that game but they want to be careful because of the time of the year you're in yet close to October you basically are set in the division I mean I'm looking at the division standings right now and the Philadelphia Phillies are seven up on the Braves their magic number for the division let me just pull this up for you I'll give you the magic numbers all over uh 15 is the magic number to make the playoffs 17 is the magic number for the NL East 20 the magic number for a guaranteed first round buy so you're you're close do you want to sit Bryce Harper because you have that buffer part of me says that you should probably against ryce Harper will say we know you might not feel better in two days but take the two days anyway take three days anyway I don't know just sit for a couple and get to a point where you're 100% sure you're okay that is the cautious approach and I think that's the place where a lot of fans are at because a lot of fans are getting kind of squeamish squeamish skittish however you want to word it nervous we'll just use that common word nervous uh when it comes to the reports about the wrist and elbow injury because the last thing anyone wants to see is Bryce Harper unavailable for Red October that would be a killer I know he hasn't shown a lot of power lately he's still a hugely important part of this team an incredible hitter and who knows you could go on a run power-wise for the rest of the season for October he had a cold September in 22 and then went nuts in the postseason so I mean we'll see you want him available because he's the best player on this team and that's important but part of me also says if Bryce Harper and this has always been the conversation with Bryce Harper because he's the guy and he's also a super human when it comes to recovering from stuff and he also knows his body very well if Bryce Harper walks into Rob Thompson's office and topper looks at him and says hey man how you feeling and Bryce says oh I'm good I'm fine like the same stuff from before is bothering me but that hitting the elbow no I'm good not bothering me today let's go get it and Rob Thompson says you're telling me you're fine I want you to take two days and Bry s's like dude I'm getting ramped up for October we got a World Series to win we got to put ourselves in best position to do that we're only seven games up on the Braves which might feel like a lot but we've got time left I want to make sure that we win this division get a first round by don't have to play in that three- game series whether it's at home or otherwise I want to go out and Lead this baseball team to what I said I would when I signed here this is my city this is my team I want to go get a game for the guys today you're telling me Rob Thompson's going to look at that guy in the face and say no no you're not going to like I don't know man if he tells you he's fine how do you tell him to sit if he tells you everything's okay how do you make something up a reason to rest him that's a tough thing to do with ryce Harper if he wants to play but being a manager is a tough job and you got to do what's right for the team so there is no true right answer because the right answer only exists in that conversation between Bryce Harper Rob Thompson maybe Dave dumbrowski the training staff in that room it depends how he's feeling and we can read all the reports we want all the quotes we want we don't know truly how Bryce Harper is feeling only one man does and that's Bryce Harper so I don't know do you defer to him I think he kind of do and if he's iffy in any way that's when you pull the trump card of hey man it's my job to make sure you're good to go I'm sitting you today take a breather I know you don't love it long-term view so it depends I guess is the real answer but it's a decision for the Phillies to make I would probably give him today off and then re-evaluate on Friday but but maybe he's in the line of today he's one tough son of a gun the Phillies are one tough baseball team right now they keep on winning they got a great opportunity tonight they should win three of four against the Marlins at least they're in a great spot the push for Red October is on I've read you the magic numbers man we've covered everything we can about a great baseball team in today's episode so that's all I'm gonna go get a nap and get ready for the game hopefully the victory shirts on tomorrow but that's all for today's episode of lockon Phillies one more time please make sure you're rating reviewing subscribing to the YouTube all that great stuff that really helps us out here on locked on Phillies we're part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day and I will talk to you tomorrow on our next episode