One Of The Easiest Stretches Of The Philadelphia Phillies Schedule Starts Now

Intro welcome into another episode of Locked on Phillies in today's episode we'll preview the Phillies upcoming series with the Kansas City Royals we'll talk about why this might be the easiest stretch of the season and what that means for our expectations over these next uh seven or so games if you count uh the twins in there as well and we'll talk about uh a bit of a Bittersweet day for the 2008 Phillies is Cole Hamels has officially announced his retirement all of that on today's episode of Locked on Phillies locked on Phillies your daily Philadelphia Phillies podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day [Music] Show Open yes this is locked on Phillies I'm Connor Thomas your host thanks so much for checking us out today uh this is locked on Philly's part of the lock on podcast Network your team every day make sure you're rating reviewing subscribing to the YouTube all that good stuff you can hear me on NBC Sports Philadelphia on the TV radio 97.5 The Fanatic all that good stuff if you want to check out some of my other work happy to be here for my second year as your host of locked on Philly so thank you again for checking us out uh today's episode of lock phone Phillies is brought to you by eBay Motors a championship team is about each player being a perfect fit same with your vehicle so for parts to fit head to Ebay motors and look for the green check stay in the game with eBay guaranteed fit ebaymotors.com let's ride eBay guaranteed fit only available to us customers eligible items only exclusions apply all right before we get into the episode if you're watching on YouTube yes you see that I have the victory shirt on because the Philadelphia Affiliates did indeed win yesterday A great win for them so gotta Rock the victory shirt on days after they win I've made that promise to you since the beginning of June so we're over two months into well I guess about two months June July yeah that's two months two months into the victory shirt era and the Philadelphia Phillies have been playing darn good baseball sense so that's a good thing but also need to comment on my appearance if you're watching on the YouTube you've noticed uh but in case you you're not watching on the YouTube or if you haven't noticed this is your first time chiming in I don't normally look like this no I have a completely shaved head um you know all the way down all the way around yes uh my hair is completely shorts because on the radio side when I do morning Sports Talk Radio I work on the junkie K show and John Kincaid is currently going through a battle with cancer and he's going through chemotherapy right now and earlier this week he had the shade of his head because he was starting to lose his hair something he hoped he wasn't going to have to go through this time if he took to the chemo better but unfortunately I did have to shave his head again and today uh on the donkey Kate show we decided that we as his co-workers and his show mates and his friends in support of him we're going to also shave our head so yes I am uh down to no hair whatsoever but it is for a good cause so please be kind to me in the comments uh I know I might look like an alien or whatever but yes it's for a good cause and best of luck to John supporting him in his fight now he's gotten good news the whole way through as good as news as you could possibly get as you're going through about uh battle with cancer so he's doing well and everyone just keep him in your thoughts and prayers but yes we have to be with him in this time as his close friends and co-workers see him every day and hey I couldn't be the only guy on that morning show with hair left everyone else is uh either balding or shaved their head today and I wasn't going to be left out in supporting John so that's why I have this new haircut if I'm sure I'm Gonna Catch I'm not gonna say this every episode right I'm not going to run through this every episode so I'm sure I'm Gonna Catch people in the comments who are like oh uh look at the city with the shaved head this that and the other thing making fun of it I get it that's fine it doesn't bother me I just wanted to explain why I didn't so you didn't think I was like Losing My Mind Over Trey Turner or anything like that no this is a perfectly conscious choice so yes that's the reason why now Series Preview into the fun stuff all right let's jump into the Phillies and a preview of their series upcoming with the Kansas City Royals because it's a very interesting one uh in that the expectations are so high and the Kansas City Royals are so bad you can check out tonight's game the Phillies will take on the Royals 705 PM Eastern Standard Time in Philadelphia uh and you can listen to tonight's game on the Series XM app just go to the SX and Maps search Phillies and you'll be able to listen to every pitch of the Phillies Hometown radio broadcast of that contest The Royals are in town for three games and I mean the Royals just frankly guys I don't know if you know this about them they're not that good they're 35 and 75 that is a winning percentage of 318. it is is it the second worst in baseball it is the second worst in baseball uh above only the Oakland Athletics 273 win percentage Yeah the Royals think and when you look at some of their numbers you understand why the Phillies they don't stink they're 59 and 50. they're currently in a wild card spot in the National League they're a team that should be able to handle this and just looking at tonight's um matchup on the amount I know it's Aaron Nola right but this is probably a good opportunity for a get ready to start for aaronola but Nola takes them out for the Phillies and on the mound for the Kansas City Royals as Jordan Lyles I mean look at these numbers for Lyles he's two and twelve win loss record on the year he's got a 6-1-5 era a one two nine whip which isn't terrible uh in 112.2 Innings pitch he's only struck out 80. he's walked 34 he's given up 22 home runs I mean Aaron Noel has given up 24 and we've almost run him out of town Jordan Lyles has given up 22 and he's just another guy on the Royals pitching staff The Royals are they're not a good team uh tell me if you know any of these names Garcia is leading off for them playing third base now Bobby Wood Jr we know he's playing shortstop batting second messy or he's yeah playing shortstop at exactly like I said Massey's batting third playing second uh Salvador Perez is over at first base uh you remember him for catching on the World Series team that they had so you remember Olivares Melendez Furman Waters Isabel if you know who these people are you're kidding yourself like they have a list of Who's Who of nobodies in Major League Baseball and that doesn't mean you can't lose to them but it means the Philadelphia Phillies who are fighting for playoff contention and lost two or three in Pittsburgh against the Pirates and lost a game that they shouldn't have in Miami to the Marlins even though they came out of that road trip with a positive record uh this is where you make up for those games you got to go to Philadelphia you got to go to Citizens Bank Park come home and you got to beat the ever living you know what out of the Kansas City Royals there's no other option if you lose one of these games okay because you got four games coming up against the Nationals after this and we'll talk about that easy stretch in the next segment but yeah a very winnable game tonight and a very winnable series against the Kansas City Royals the Phillies are minus 250 on the money line we have the Phillies lineup shorter's gonna DH and lead off Alec bone is going to play Third that second Bryce Harper is going to play first that third in the lineup Nick casiano's cleanup playing right right it's not a second base jrimuto catching Brandon Marshall left field Trey Turner shortstop we'll talk about Trey Turner a little bit later you're on roast in center field uh so yeah it's a little bit of a situation where you're way better than the other team and you should be able to handle them I mean just looking at this series the Phillies according to ESPN analytics have a 74.2 percent chance to win tonight uh let's go to the next game in a pitching matchup between Christopher Sanchez and Alec Marsh who is 0-5 on the year with a 675 era the Phillies have a 70.3 chance to win and then the next game after that uh you have Taiwan Walker on the mound the Phillies have a 70.7 chance to win the Phillies are winning these games seven out of 10 times according to ESPN yeah you should be able to handle that there's if they lose a games of the Royals you're not gonna lose your mind but if they sweep it wouldn't be a surprise to me and to me I rarely say go into a series with the expectation sweep I'm going into the series with an expectation of sweet we can accept two out of three but I want three out of three against the Kansas City Royals and the Philadelphia Phillies should too they have a really good opportunity in this series to take care of business and it'll help them out in the standings as they are currently currently in the Wild Card race let's just go ahead and plug over this I know the Braves are winning right now so the Phillies will drop another half game back before they even play but they're currently in the second wild card spot their game up on Cincinnati's in third wild card spot teams keep going back and forth all the time is it Arizona is it Miami Chicago's only two games out of the final spot Cincinnati's bouncing around the Giants bouncing around the Phillies bouncing around the Phillies could really use three wins here and then they play the Nationals for four I mean take six out of those next eight and you're in really good spot take seven of those next eight and you might just be like two three games up as the top wild card I mean a lot of stuff can go their way with a very easy stretch of the schedule and a long way to go still but take advantage of what you got going on here and that can really help so I the Phillies I mean you got to like their chances like even with aaronola on the mound and maybe this is a Get Right game for Aaron Nola maybe this is the time where he needs to go out and just dominate a lineup that's not a major league lineup uh as far as the uh Kansas City Royals and what they tried out every day uh maybe that really helps him out maybe he comes out and disappoints is worse than he ever has I don't know what that guy does but he has the ability to have a good start we still know that even if it's not consistent so hopefully he'll go ahead and do that tonight and the Phillies can get off to a good start coming up we're going to talk about a big night for somebody else and a big night for the fan base and what this home stretch means for the Philadelphia Phillies the rest of the way we'll discuss as we continue locked on Phillies Sleeper all right let me tell you about my friends over at sleeper okay uh we're going to talk about something that's happening with Trey Turner and the support the crowd is planning on showing him tonight at Citizens Bank Park you think Trey Turner can hit a home run tonight against the Kansas City Royals well we sure do me Philadelphia everybody we believe in him that's why he's going to get a standing ovation tonight and on sleeper you can make some money off that you could swing for the fences with up to a hundred times payouts all you have to do is choose two or more players that you like and select more or less on their stat categories like home runs strikeouts hits and more get your picks right and you could win big sleeper is absolutely awesome it's a very simple app the interface anyone can figure it out like even me who I'm not that smart and I don't claim to be I can easily set my sleeper line up and go ahead and put up to eight picks in there just select the player go select the prop and select over under and all that good stuff and you'll be able to uh win up to 100 times your money that's incredible there's great wins on there and sleeper now has this new thing Dynamic payouts which is great before it was just like okay eight legs is this seven legs is this if you pick six players you win this much depending on like those factors but there's not Dynamic payouts so in short what dynamic payouts are is each player projection now is a multiplier attached to it so maybe because Trey Turner is stunk this year if you want to pick him the hit home run you'll get like three times the amount of payout that you uh that you would normally get and it's based on the number of legs in a contest uh or no sorry it's not that's the preset based on the number of legs in the contest was how it used to be now with the dynamic payouts you also have more stat categories and more opportunities to make more money on top of that you can get higher payouts than other apps with less picks isn't that what you want to make more money for Less that's great with sleeper so go ahead check out sleeper download it use it and use promo code lock on you'll get up to a 100 match on your first deposit terms and conditions apply see sleepers terms are used for details currently operational and over 30 States so check out sleeper today Trey Turner all right let's talk about this Trey Turner thing and this easy stretch of the schedule so this Grassroots movement among the Philadelphia Phillies fan base has become a thing where people feel the need to support Trey Turner for all the struggles he's going through on the field and clearly taking it to heart he said after uh game three in Miami it was his fault they lost the game and nobody really tried to debate him on that because I think it was and a lot of people agree with him and he's been having a rough year and all this stuff I get it so the fan base come together and they thought hmm well Alec bone was having a tough time started last season and he got caught on camera saying he hates this place and then apologized for a post game and said he just got worked up and the fans game was standing ovation the next game now there was a lot more clear reason and it was a lot more spur of the moment like no one said we're gonna plan to stand and cheer for Alec bone like that was a magical moment last year that really helped mentally I think a young player traitor is not a young player but he could use help mentally in the Phillies fans are going back to the well and people want to give him a standing ovation tonight at Citizens Bank Park to let him know we're behind him and I love it I don't have any issue with it whatsoever like it doesn't hurt anything even if you think uh it's soft uh you're being kind to a player who isn't playing well that's not Philadelphia why does he deserve a standing ovation he hasn't been playing well in past years we would have booed this guy and all that and other things yeah I get that and the thing is you're not acknowledging Trey Turner for how he's played this year you're telling him in spite of how you played because of your track record we still believe that you're a good baseball player can help us and you chose our city in free agency so we're going to show you that we have your back trust me if Rodolfo Castro who was just traded here for Pittsburgh was struggling like this he's not getting a standing ovation uh if I I don't know I mean look at aranola Aaron Nola is not getting a standing ovation by the Philadelphia Phillies fans because he's off and he's down and he's up and he's down and is this that and the other thing this is the beginning of a long relationship with Trey Turner and it hasn't started off well for him and he wants it to and the fanbase recognizes that and they're doing what they can to try and spur him into producing make him feel comfortable make him feel like even though there's pressure on him and we understand the pressure we're going to go right back to expecting great things from you as soon as we stop the standing ovation we're here to support you and we want you to play well we're not rooting against straight Turner just to root again straight Turner we're rooting for the Philadelphia Affiliates and want Trey Turner to be a part of why they win so I love the idea I'm interested to see how it plays out tonight at Citizens Bank Park and how that goes so we'll keep an eye on that and I'm an update for that uh on that for you in my next episode but yes that's something to keep an eye on tonight and hopefully that'll help Trey Turner somehow mentally but let's talk about the expectations for a very easy stretch of the schedule for the Philadelphia Phillies I mean I'm just looking at this and right now we know you play the Kansas City Royals for three games first game is at 705 PM Eastern Standard time tonight you can listen to every pitch of the Phillies Hometown radio broadcast of that game on the SiriusXM app just go to the sxm app and search Phillies and you'll be able to pull that up there but three games against the Royals who are the second to worst team in baseball record-wise and then you go and you play Four games against the Washington Nationals now the Nationals are 46 and 63. they're not the pushover that they have been in previous years when you look at their winning percentage I just want to look at this they're 24 and a half games back but the Braves are really good they have a 4-2-2 winning percentage which is one two three four it would be the fifth worst in baseball so they're not like they're not a good baseball team down there in Washington but they're not a complete pushover worst team in the league anything like that so three of four would be awesome I think that'd be right to think of that as an opportunity to take three or four that's four games but no double header in there I believe let me just double check Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday yeah no double header in there so you've got a really good opportunity to just play Bad opponents for the next seven games after that you get the Minnesota Twins who are 56 and 54. a good team but I think a little bit of that record is product of the AL Central and not being that good of a division three games against them they're beatable but the real easy stretch is these next seven games in a wild card run where every game seems to matter and as we're entering the final two months of the Season these games are Paramount to take advantage this might sound crazy but you have seven games I think the bottom line expectation is five wins and to me I want them to win six of them I want one of these to be a sweep and I want one of them to be a series with one loss in it and I think that's totally achievable I was gonna say reasonable but I don't know if reasonable is the right word but that's achievable for the Philadelphia Affiliates and maybe it's not a reasonable expectation I think a reasonable expectation is closer to five out of seven games you win but this is where you kind of make hey this could be the point of the Season where you look back at the start of October and say a big reason we got in and we're able to rest our pitchers in the final three games and set up our playoff rotation the way we want it is because we won six of seven in that stretch against Kansas City and uh Washington like that could really put you in the driver's seat when it comes to the National League Wild Card race and hey these other teams could keep winning but I mean you've got a real opportunity you're trying to chase down the Giants right now right let's look at what the Giants next couple games are I want to go to the standings real quick here and just compare that to where the Philadelphia Phillies are as far as strength of opponents the Giants have the Athletics for two they get the Angels who are trying to push towards the playoffs they get the Rangers who are one of the better teams in baseball they get the raise after that and then they get the Braves the Giants are in a murderer's row and then they play this team called the Philadelphia Phillies and then they go play the Braves again the Giants could be Dead in the Water by the end of this stretch I really hadn't looked at that until this point that is troubling let's look at the Cincinnati Reds who are kind of currently in your third wild card spot they get the Nationals but then they play the Marlins who are French playoff team the Pirates the Guardians okay the Reds have a bit of an easy stretch so the Reds could probably hang around you need to keep Pace with them but they're not as strong of a team as you the Giants are going to hit a bad stretch here the Phillies have an opportunity to hit a good stretch here that could totally flip the fortunes of those two teams and that's something I'm looking into so yes a big stretch for the Philadelphia Phillies coming up again it starts tonight 705 p.m Eastern Standard Time game one against the Kansas City Royals you can listen to every pitch of the Phillies Hometown radio broadcast of that game on the Sirius XM app just go to the sxm app and search Phillies and you can pull that all up there but a huge stretch for the Phillies and one where they should be able to win a lot of games coming up as we wrap up it's a bit of sad day bit of a sad day I should say for uh people around my age or Phillies fans in general who remember the 2008 championship team as Cole Hamels has announced his retirement just want to share a little bit about my thoughts about that being a kid who grew up on that team as we wrap up today's episode of Locked on Phillies Cole Hamels yes it's official as of about an hour or so ago Cole Hamels has decided that he is no longer going to be playing the game of baseball professionally and that marks the final player of the 2008 World Series winning team to hang it up now it's fitting that Cole Hamels the World Series MVP of that team is the final guy to announce his retirement it's kind of funny how things work out in sports like that it's just beautiful maybe poetic justice is what you call it but it's uh the sports universe and the world in general just has a funny way of working things out that way so well deserved that Cohan was good to recognition as the last guy but really it's just a timing thing I mean there were older players on that team Cole Hamels was one of the younger players but that team's officially now no longer playing baseball makes me feel old man I don't know about you out there listening but that was my childhood like favorite team the 2008 Phillies Utley and Rollins and Howard and Hamels lidge Blanton Madsen worth Victorino all of these guys that Chooch that made that team what they were and into world champions none of them are playing baseball anymore and it was a good run we were in 2023 that's 10 what is it 15 years later so we had a good run of watching those guys play baseball even past that time but it's just the ending of a true ending of an error I know that team had been long gone here in Philadelphia and we went through a bad stretch and then we've come back out on the other side with this new generation of Phillies players and we hope that one day we're talking about the last player to retire from the 2023 World Series winning team but it was just a uh it was a moment that kind of stopped me in my tracks a little bit and said wow really is the last time we'll ever see anyone from that 2018 play professional baseball and that's a sad moment but it also makes you think about all the great times we had watching those players and watching that team and what was one of the great stretches in the history of the Philadelphia Phillies so happy retirement Nicole Hamels sorry to everyone I just made feel old by going through that but uh yeah the end of an era and I wanted to just give some love to that 2018 and all those great players who made it one of the most magical times as a baseball fan in my life so uh yeah four one out for the 2008 Phillies Happy Trails as they say on uh pardon the interruption and uh it's time to now go ahead and make new world series champions in Philadelphia Phillies uniforms and hey a grape stretch for the Philadelphia Phillies just take a step towards that today that's all for today's episode of Locked on Phillies thank you so much for checking us out in spite of the new shaved head look really appreciate you sticking with us even though the sun's probably glaring off my head right now I gotta get used to all this I really appreciate it lock on Philly's part of the lock on podcast Network your team every day make sure you're rating reviewing subscribe to the YouTube I really appreciate everyone who's already done that and everyone who's going to do that takes two seconds cost you nothing gives you notifications when new episodes are posted so go ahead and jump in all that uh but yeah that's all for today's episode and I'll talk to you next time on the next episode of lock on 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