A few weeks ago, the Phillies were pushed around by baseball's best team, the Chicago Cubs. They were recently dominated by the leaders of their own division, the Washington Nationals. And this week, they were thoroughly humiliated by the Toronto Blue Jays.
These are all among the best teams in baseball and the gap in talent between the Phillies and these three teams could not be more obvious. There is no shame in losing to the Cubs, Nats and Jays. But it is how the Phils have lost to these teams, Toronto in particular, that resulted in manager Pete Mackanin calling a team meeting after their 13-2, series finale loss to the Blue Jays.
They committed four errors. Odubel Herrera mindlessly threw a ball into the stands mistakenly thinking their were three outs instead of two, which resulted in a run. Aaron Nola pitched scared. The offense was meek against former Phil J.A. Happ. It was a disaster, and it looked like the Phillies were getting pushed around.
Joining me on the podcast this week was The News Journal's Meghan Montemurro to recap the latest headlines, and in happier conversation, Reading Fightins play-by-play man Michael Ventola stops by to talk about the insanely hot start the Phils' AA affiliate has gotten off to.
Also, Herrera is still nowhere to be found among the top NL vote-getters, the Phils' top three draft picks may be close to signing, and is Ichiro Suzuki baseball's newest hit king? Plus, we have our Stat of the Week.