For the Phillies, beginning a run during the series in New York before facing the Marlins and the Mets at home is critical to the red pinstripes’ chances to capture the NL East pennant.

Toward October:

As the Philadelphia Phillies entered the final month, the faithful viewed the first contests the way they had eyed them in April. Ergo, tempered expectations. But this time, you should be ready for the fireworks they produced after a disappointing March series in Atlanta.

IN OTHER WORDS: “The Six W’s: Work will win when wishing won’t.” – Todd Blackledge

Baseball is changing again, and the reason is a business requires innovation to remain competitive. That stated, they had replaced the pitcher’s box on flat ground with a mound in 1893, and then the home team began altering the height to each starter’s preference. Yeah, 125 years ago!

As for sabermetrics, some believe it answers every question, but no system has ever done that. Ergo, one size doesn’t fit all! But it provides value as a whole, not just a part or two.

To illustrate, the two and four holes in the batting order are the RBI slots. So, the manager fills those with his best run producers. For the Phils, Rhys Hoskins bats second because he has more speed than Wilson Ramos hitting cleanup.

Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels and Giancarlo Stanton of the New York Yankees bat second. Yes, Stanton hits there even with Aaron Judge on the disabled list. In fact, the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers rely heavily on analytics, and they were in the 2017 World Series.

Los Angeles (NL) wanted to hire Kapler, but the veterans were against having a manager coordinating with the front office. Of course, the youngsters here weren’t able to make demands. Besides, the skipper and the general manager have their jobs on the line with no shortage of replacements.

On the other hand, sabermeterics is like a closer noticed and criticized for failure. Numerically, 90 percent success doesn’t justify the other 10 percent to the locals. You’ll never hear the shift would have prevented an RBI single. Yeah, only the opposite!