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With the Philadelphia Phillies set to start the MLB Playoffs festivities with their NL Wild Card round series vs. the St. Louis Cardinals, that means it's time to release some predictions.
The Phillies, who finished the regular season at 87-75, came a long way from the first half of the year, when they fired ex-manager Joe Girardi after a 22-29 start. The Phillies never looked back from that point, playing nearly .600 ball under interim manager Rob Thomson to earn a Wild Card spot in the postseason.
Led by their impressive one-two punch in Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola atop the pitching rotation, as well as sluggers like Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber, the Phillies have as good a chance as any team in the NL to emerge.
But they'll first have to contend with a Cardinals team that was powered by one of the league's best players, Paul Goldschmidt. St. Louis managed to win 93 games on the strength of talented bats, such as Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado.
The pitching staff, led by the likes of Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas and deadline acquisitions Jose Quintana and Jordan Montgomery, is solid. It will be a tough test for the Phillies.
Can they pull off the series win and advance to the NL Division Series? We'll discuss that- and more- here as we dive into our Phillies bold predictions for the NL Wild Card round of the MLB Playoffs vs. the Cardinals.
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3. Phillies' Bryce Harper gets red-hot Vs. Cardinals
The last month of the season has been a drag for Bryce Harper. The 2021 NL MVP missed 52 games with a fractured left thumb and laced a two-run single in his first game back, giving Phillies fans hope that he would return to the MVP form he displayed earlier in the 2022 season. That was not the case.
Harper hit just .196 with three home runs, 13 RBI and 11 runs scored in 29 games played across September and October. He often looked lost at the dish, striking out 32 times in 125 plate appearances. Yet, there is hope that Harper figures it out.
For one thing, he's a professional hitter who is, admittedly, a bit streaky. A hot streak is bound to be around the corner following a stretch as icy as he had for the Phillies.
But here's the more important factor. Harper has been an absolute Cardinals killer in his career. In 54 career games against the redbirds, Harper owns a mammoth .333/.439/.1.063 OPS with 12 homers, 45 RBI and 33 runs scored.
He has quite literally been an offensive machine against St. Louis in his career. It's a safe bet that Bryce Harper is going to heat up for the Phillies in their MLB Playoff series against the Cards.
2. Aaron Nola continues excellence into October for Phillies
He can't pitch in September. He's a choke artist. Those are probably some of the nicer sentiments Aaron Nola has heard from Philly sports radio hosts and pundits over the last few years. For some reason, the month has been the bane of Nola's existence in his career.
Nola has a career ERA under 3.15 for three of the six months but a 4.26 mark in September. This year, however, the Phillies ace finally exorcised his demons in that month, as he pitched to a 2.34 ERA in his final six starts of the campaign.
It culminated in a brilliant performance against the Houston Astros where the right-hander looked like he would be perfect at one point. Nola looks like a pitcher in complete control right now.
He became just the second hurler in history to finish with 230-plus strikeouts and 30 or fewer walks. Armed with a five-pitch mix, including a filthy curveball and sneaky-good four-seamer, Nola has all the tools to be a dominant playoff pitcher.
That's exactly what he will be starting in Game 2 of this MLB Playoff series vs. the Cardinals. Not only will Nola continue his excellence into October, but he will record double-digit strikeouts while holding the Cards scoreless in his intro to postseason ball.
1. The Phillies win both games in St. Louis to advance
The NL Wild Card round is a best-of-three series. The Phillies have lined up their two best pitchers, Zack Wheeler and Nola, to take the mound for the series' first two contests.
When Wheeler, who flirted with the 2021 NL Cy Young award, and Nola are on, they are incredibly tough to square up, especially for a top-heavy lineup like the one the Cardinals possess.
Wheeler, who returned from an injured list stint due to right forearm tendinitis on September 21, built his workload up from 58 pitches to 77 in his final start on October 2.
His next time out, Game 1 of the Wild Card round, Wheeler should be able to flirt with 80-90 pitches, especially if he's rolling. That gives the Phillies two bonafide studs to hand the ball to. That's something the Cardinals just don't have.
And it will be a quick series because of that.
