After another World Cup-induced Friday off-day, the Phillies will take on the Kansas City Royals in a rare Saturday to Monday series. The Phillies and Royals have some history together, as they squared off in the 1980 World Series. (The Phillies won.) It seems unlikely that there will be a rematch in the 2026 World Series because the Royals are mired in last place with the fewest wins in the American League.
Opposition research: Matt Strahm
The Phillies’ offseason moves haven’t all worked out, but they certainly seemed to have gotten rid of Matt Strahm at the right time. After an All-Star campaign in 2024, Strahm’s effectiveness slipped a bit last year. The Phillies clearly didn’t think he was trending in the correct direction, as they traded him to the Royals in exchange for Jonathan Bowlan.
Advertisement
Bowlan has shown some promise, although there’s still too much inconsistency there. As for Strahm, despite the Phillies being lacking in effective lefthanded relievers, it doesn’t seem like having Strahm around would have made the situation better.
Strahm’s strikeout numbers have plummeted this season, and probably not coincidentally, he’s allowing far more baserunners. He had a streak in June where he gave up runs in six consecutive appearances, with the nadir coming on June 19 when he allowed three runs in 0.2 inning.
Strahm may have stabilized things a bit and he hasn’t given up a run in his last five outings. However, with only two strikeouts across those five innings, it isn’t clear how sustainable that will be. The Phillies will likely be looking to trade for a lefty reliever at the deadline, but my hope is that they look elsewhere.
Advertisement
Hating on the Royals
Three years after winning the 2015 World Series, the Royals were a 104-loss team. Come 2024, it looked like they had successfully rebuilt from that downturn, when they won 86 games and made the playoffs behind an MVP runner-up finish by Bobby Witt, Jr.
Two years later, the rebuild appears to have stalled. Witt is still very good, but the rest of the team is not. Key players have either regressed, gotten hurt, or both. They’ll be lucky to avoid their fourth 100+ loss season in the last ten years. A little over a week ago, they lost by a score of 22-1.
Of course, losing should be a comfortable feeling for Royals fans, since the team has a grand history of not making the playoffs. They had a nice little run with George Brett in the late 70’s and early 80’s, but since winning the 1985 World Series, they’ve made the playoffs just three times.
Advertisement
You’d think that the expanded playoff field would have made it easier for the Royals, but even letting more teams in hasn’t done much to help the Royals. In that time, the Royals have more than twice as many 100+ loss seasons as they do playoff appearances.
The fans don’t even have the Chiefs to console them this year as the city’s football team missed the playoffs last season.
Trivia
Last week’s answer: When the Phillies crushed the Mets at Citi Field on September 20, 2024, Alec Bohm had four hits and four RBIs. CarterAndCo got it right.
This week’s question: In the decisive game six of the 1980 World Series what Phillie recorded three hits?
Advertisement
Additional thought about the series
Sunday’s game is on Peacock and boy did they get themselves a good pitching matchup with Aaron Nola (6.04 ERA) going against Luinder Avila (5.40 ERA).
As for the rest of the series, the Royals have a mediocre lineup and a bad pitching staff. Their best starter is Michael Wacha, and it feels like a good rule of thumb is: If Michael Wacha is your best pitcher, you’re probably not making the playoffs. Kyle Schwarber will likely be very excited to see him though.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source sports.yahoo.com ’
