The Phillies are Going to be Just Fine

It’s not easy being the sole voice of reason within the Phillies fan base, but it’s a role I’m proud to occupy. And I’ll continue to occupy it until it no longer makes sense.

I’m a realist - you have to be when it comes to sports (and life). It’s nice to think your team is going to win the championship every year. It’s great to feel like your team is going to go undefeated. The sad reality is those things aren’t going to happen. There’s time where you need to realize that and come back down to Earth with your expectations. That’s not the case with the 2025 Phillies.

No, they’re not undefeated and they’re not going to win the World Series every year. But winning this year’s Fall Classic? Still on the table. Even after two games where their performance has been suboptimal. Yes, good teams have bad games. It happens, believe it or not.

Good teams even have bad series. The reigning World Series Champion LA Dodgers - who I’d imagine we all view as a powerhouse of an organization - recently got swept by the Angels, split a 4 game set with the abysmal Rockies, and dropped 2/3 to their rival Padres. Is the Dodgers season over? Not at all. It happens.

That doesn’t mean I enjoyed watching Jhoan Duran blow the game to the Mets last night or all the other frustrating stuff that happened. It’s so easy to buy into the negativity, the panic, and the

Duran got hit around. Starling Marte and Pete Alonso jumped on him early in the count for two hard singles and Brett Baty got a lucky bloop hit. Another hard hit by Nimmo. He hasn’t been sharp the past two games. It happens.

If you’re going to erase the dominance Duran had prior to these past two games and think that this is his new M.O., then you better call up a family member, close friend, neighbor, local ShopRite employee, whoever, and ask them to help you find your mind because you’ve lost it, buddy.

Let me remind you the Mets are 9-14 in the month of August. The Phillies have a 5 game lead on them in the division. The Phillies have a 4 games series with the Braves after this. If they can salvage this Mets series by taking Game 3 with Taijuan Walker on the hill, build on that momentum and take 3/4 from the Braves they will be in phenomenal shape.

One bad series doesn’t define a team. It’s how you follow it up. Lately, the Phillies have been compounding mistakes. That’s something bad teams do - make mistake after mistake. They always say a baseball closer needs a bad memory. After the first two games of this series, the whole Phillies roster is gonna need a bad memory. This is why we play 162 and not 2.