Phillies Steamroll Through the Playoffs 

  The Phillies had been crushing teams at an unprecedented rate on the National League side of the Major League Baseball playoffs.

At the start of the playoffs, the Phillies had to face the St. Louis Cardinals. Shocking almost everyone in the sports world, the Phillies advanced by winning their first two games. Almost everyone thought the Phillies would lose those two games to the Cardinals, but they prevailed. 

Next up were the Atlanta Braves, the defending World Series champs. Stars for the Phillies rose to the challenge, though. Bryce Harper hit .500 with two home runs, 5 RBIs and an OPS of 1.592, stats better than almost any other player in the playoffs. Rhys Hopskins hit a home run and 4 RBIs; Nick Castellanos hit 5 RBIs, and J.T. Realmuto hit 1 home run and had 2 RBIs. The Phillies won the series in 4 games to advance to the National League pennant series against the San Diego Padres.

  The first key to their success is that they can’t stop hitting; in the playoffs at home they were 6-0 and averaged 7 runs per game. Of course, even with all this hitting, the Phillies still needed to hold off the other teams’ bats. The Phillies pitching isn’t exactly what you would call dominant. Their regular season team earned run average was 3.97, which was 18th in the league. Their opposition batting average was .247, which was 16th-best. They stepped it up in the playoffs, though, improving their ERA to 3.29, while their opposing teams’ batting average is just .200. 

Pitchers Zach Wheeler and Aaron Nola have both shined in the spotlight. Wheeler made one of the best postseason starts of his career in the first game against the Padres. He went 7 innings and kept the Padres to 0 runs, earning a clutch win from an amazing start. 

Even though the Phillies lost in the World series, they did much better than anyone expected. I think they have changed the talk around the franchise and predict they will have success in the following seasons.