Phillies' bats blowing right past all logic and reason in Red October

Phillies' bats blowing right past all logic and reason in Red October originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Over a hundred years ago, Babe Ruth began smashing pitches over distant fences with such regularity that it changed the way baseball was played and lifted the sport to new heights of popularity.

It was a Yankees public relations man named Red Patterson in the 1950s who is credited with further mythologizing the long ball by pacing off the supposed distance Mickey Mantle’s mightiest home runs traveled. That’s how the term tape measure homer came to be.

Hall of Fame Orioles manager Earl Weaver succinctly summed up his secret to success in the 1970s and ‘80s as “pitching and three-run homers.” The former keeps you in the game, he’d elaborate, and the latter wins them.

But even in the modern analytics era, when strikeouts have boomed and batting averages have shriveled and all is forgiven as long as those numbers are offset by enough home runs (see: Schwarber, Kyle) what the Phillies have accomplished so far during their most recent playoff run has been kind of astonishing.

By throttling the Diamondbacks, 10-0, in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park, they did more than just take a commanding lead of two games to none in the best-of-seven series with a chance to punch their ticket to the World Series after the venue shifts to Chase Field in Phoenix starting Thursday.

They also improved their postseason record to 7-1. And in those eight games they’ve outhomered their opponents by an incredible 19-4.

Yes, it’s hard to believe. But there’s documentary footage available to verify that it’s 100 percent true.

That includes six dingers (or bombs or taters or circuit clouts or round-trippers; take your pick of corny alternative terms) in the first two games against Arizona. The Diamondbacks biggest weapon coming in was supposed to be momentum. But that forward motion hit more than a speed bump. The fenders are now crumpled, two of the tires are flat and there’s steam hissing out from under the hood.

This all flies directly in the face of the conventional wisdom, by the way, which states that since the best teams in baseball are sending their best pitchers to the mound at this point of the season and that good pitching tends to beat good hitting, offensive numbers should be depressed once the leaves start to turn colors.

Also, since a batted baseball tends to carry further in warmer weather, the cooler autumn temperatures should also be holding the power numbers down.

So far the Phillies are blowing right past that logic.

Manager Rob Thomson’s explanation was the simplest one. “Well, I mean, we have a really good lineup. And it’s a long lineup and we’re swinging the bats really well right now,” he said with a shrug.

Schwarber, a fixture in the leadoff spot despite batting .197 and leading the league in whiffs with 215; was dormant through the first two rounds, but went deep twice Tuesday night after homering once in Game 1.

In doing so, he tied Reggie Jackson for the most postseason home runs by a lefthanded hitter in postseason play with 18. And it took Mr. October 77 games to do it while Schwarber has done it in 60. Reggie might not be too happy with the Phillies right now. When Nick Castellanos hit his fifth homer in three games on Monday, that also tied one of his playoff records.

J.T. Realmuto said he’s not surprised that the Phillies have been so dominant at the plate in the playoffs.

“I think this is the kind of lineup we envisioned ourselves having all season long. And I just think we’re clicking at he right time now,” the catcher said. “From top to bottom, everybody seems like they’re having good at bats. The focus is there. The intent is there. We’re not chasing as much as we did early in the season. We’re trying to cut down our swings and just put the ball in play.

“Then you turn around and we’re hitting home runs all over the field and these guys are doing a ton of damage.”

Added Schwarber: “To piggyback off that, the way we’re controlling the (strike) zone and making them come to us. The pitching is really good at this point of the year. Don’t get me wrong. But the big thing is, when we get our hitter’s pitch, we don’t want to miss it. That’s the biggest thing right now.”

All that power has helped the Phillies outscore the Marlins, Braves and Diamondbacks by a combined 46-13 so far, which is obviously also a tribute to their pitching. The concern, of course, is that power can go AWOL at any time.

What the Phillies have accomplished in the postseason to this point is a continuation of the last two months of the regular season when they obliterated the club record for homers in a month with 59 in August and followed that it up with 48 more in the final month. . .which also would have been a new record. They also hit as few as 23 in a month in May.

“Offense comes and goes,” Thomson admitted. “We have to stay on it.”

That’s why he was happy to see his team tack on seven more runs after jumping out to a 3-0 lead on three solo shots. Even with that, 54 percent of the Phills runs in the postseason have been the result of the long ball.

“That means that (almost) half have also come from stringing hits together, so we can do it both ways,” he said.

Shortstop Trea Turner, who got the Phillies on the board with his third postseason homer in the first inning, also noted the importance of being able to grind out runs as well. “It’s not easy this time of year because everyone’s good, but when those opportunities present themselves, you’ve got to take advantage of it,” he said.

During the 2023 playoffs, teams that have outhomered their opponents have gone 17-2. The Phillies have won five times when home runs alone accounted for more total runs than the other team scored.

“They’ve been winning these games because they’ve been slugging. We have not been slugging the baseball,” said Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo.

The Phillies have been hitting the whey out of baseballs for the better part of the last two-and-a-half months. And if they can keep it up for just a couple more weeks, they might just find themselves in a parade down Broad Street.