👋 Good morning! Video of the year, no question.

I was watching the game live, and on the NBC Sports Philly feed, we understandably did not see the full video initially. They cut to Harrison Bader rounding the bases, and then they zoomed in on The Artist Known As Phillies Karen confronting the guy hugging his son. The guy’s immediate reaction was deeply funny.

Then we got the full video and the rest was history. An old-school viral moment, that thing spread incredibly fast. Honestly pretty impressive.

I do not have much more to add. The lady was definitely in the wrong. This was not a Zack Hample move by the dad, who ran over five or six seats and beat her to the punch (plus, he gave the ball to his young son right away). It stinks that the home-run ball hit her or her companion, but when it hits the ground, it’s very much a free-for-all. After getting the baseball, she then went full heel as he section booed her, some real professional wrestling stuff.

Everything worked out fine. The kid got some merch from the Marlins and then a signed bat from Bader, nice job by both teams. And for Phillies Karen, well, the whole world is calling her Phillies Karen. I think that is punishment enough.

Love how many Phils fans we had down in Miami, by the way. The fan base travels so well that there was a viral moment between two groups Phillies fans in an opposing ballpark. Hard to believe, Harry.

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Our guy Bill Matz has a new show debuting today. 30 minutes, in the middle of the day, you can have some fun and then get out of there. Perfect fit. Bill has absolutely killed it with Charlie on the Flyers show (and that is not changing), but this is a great opportunity for him to talk about the rest of the Philly teams. The show will be on our YouTube page, like everything else is.

And I gotta be honest gang, I saw a bunch of my PHLY colleagues retweet this one with eyeball emojis and such. If this is The Real Brandon Graham, I imagine that is a pretty big deal. But really, who is to say? Since they do not tell me nothin’ around here, you might as well just hit the subscribe button and see what happens.

Win or lose on Sunday, I was feeling great about the Phillies. This was gonna be a positive recap of the three-game set in Miami.

And to start, it will be just that. The Phils won 2 of 3 and grinded to the last out on Sunday. That was the type of loss that even a psycho like me does not get too upset about. The Mets lost 2 of 3, so they picked up a game on them. The Dodgers lost 2 of 3 (and lost in pretty spectacular fashion on Saturday, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto just one out away from a no-hitter), so they picked up a game on them as well.

OK, back to the Phils. They lost on Sunday, but there were a ton of positives. I am gonna stick with two of them:

(1) Outfield production: Put this in the “Uh-oh, Happy learned how to putt” category. In the series, the Phils’ four-man outfield went 12-35 with five walks, three homers, two doubles and a triple. From one of the worst outfields in MLB over the past few years, that is some serious production! In particular, Marsh had a monster week.

Nick Castellanos sat the first two games, and then played on Sunday. He went 1-4 with a triple and got jobbed on what should have been a check-swing. Even if it is a strict platoon, we will see Casty at least twice against the Mets with two lefties (Sean Manaea, David Peterson) going for New York.

Bader seems… awesome? Marsh absolutely destroys righties. If you can get production out of a Kepler-Casty timeshare, this is probably the best I have felt about the Phillies outfield since Bryce Harper needed Tommy John.

(2) Starting pitching: Seven innings of one-run ball for Cristopher Sánchez, six innings of two-run ball for Jesús Luzardo. Little bit of an adventure for Jesús, but the Luzardo Coaster still moves upward and onward.

And at the risk of being labeled as “too Tai-pilled,” I just am so impressed with Taijuan Walker’s mental makeup. This is not me defending the signing, either. Walker clearly does not have the stuff to be anything more than a No. 5-ish starter. And when his stuff is bad, it is so bad. Comically bad.

Case in point: In yesterday’s first inning in Miami, Tai gave up four runs and still had to escape a bases-loaded jam. He could not locate his splitter even a little bit, everything looked hopeless. He threw a whopping 34 pitches in that opening frame. But then Tai did what he often does, bear the [redacted] down. On a day the Phillies could not afford to have their bullpen taxed, Tai responded to his first-inning shelling with five scoreless innings (and he probably could have went one more). As a result, the Phillies were very much in that game.

I am not going over the top with Taijuan praise here. He probably cannot be in the playoff rotation, the stuff is just not there. But even when Tai has not had his stuff this season, he has very often battled and avoided disaster. Ask the Mets: They would absolutely kill for four-run, six-inning ball from some of their veteran starters.

But then, le sigh.

As you can see here, Trea Turner flew down the line and beat out a grounder on a throwing error. But he called timeout and immediately walked into the dugout. I saw it live and my first thought was, “Oh no, that is a hamstring.” Ding ding ding.

We saw this story just last year, and I was at the May home game against San Francisco when it happened: Trea took both third and home on a pretty routine passed ball, an incredible play. But Trea suffered a left hamstring strain making that magic happen, an injury that caused him to miss six weeks. Edmundo Sosa filled in admirably, Trea returned and the Phils were fine.

Well, the Phillies do not have six weeks this time around. Game 1 of the NLDS is October 4th, less than a month away. I would argue that getting the bye is even more important now, and the Phils are currently four games up on the Dodgers for the No. 2 spot (although they gotta play three more in LA next week). Turner’s post-game interview is here, he talked about “limiting the damage” and how it’s “hopefully not as bad” as last year’s strain.

That has to be our hope anyway, Trea will have an MRI today. I would argue that the Phillies’ most important six players are these guys in some order: Wheeler, Sánchez, Schwarber, Harper, Turner, Duran. We already know that one of those guys will not be available for October, and now can only hope that it is not two. Trea is having a monster season.

Promotion news: Per MILB’s Chase Ford, the Phillies made some promotion news with a few of their top prospects: Aroon Escobar and Dante Nori from High-A Jersey Shore to Double-A Reading, and most interestingly, Aidan Miller from Reading to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

The links, the links, the links: I will have more of a game review tomorrow, but we already have so much good stuff on the site:

Za’Darius! Mike Florio had some good details on the signing: One year, $4.25 million base salary (which the Eagles can get off the hook from, if they release him), $4 million in incentives. Seems very much like a no-brainer.

It seems like Smith was in Philly for a few days prior to the signing, so this is not an overreaction to the Birds’ zero-sack performance against Dallas minus Jalen Carter. It seems like Howie was already worried about the team’s edge-rusher depth. Azeez Ojulari being inactive for the game, after what by all accounts was a quiet camp, was a major red flag.

So, what does Smith bring? Violence, according to Fran. Smith is 6-foot-4 and 275 pounds, so he profiles as the sturdier run defender/more well-rounded player that Vic Fangio prefers from his edge rushers. The anti-Bryce Huff, basically. But Smith also had nine sacks in 17 combined games for Cleveland and Detroit last season.

I get the trepidation, I really do. The Eagles won by developing young players last year, not bringing in older mercenaries. But even as Smith turns 33 today, he plays a position that ages pretty well and he is not being asked to do anything else but play in a rotation with Nolan Smith, Jalyx Hunt and maybe Josh Uche. I am cautiously optimistic.

Unfortunately, the Eagles made room for Smith by putting Ben VanSumeren on IR. Poor BVS, this is two years in a row with a season-ending knee injury. And poor Jeffrey Lurie, who talked this offseason about revolutionizing the fullback position.

Twisted what-if by Fran on yesterday’s pod: What if the Eagles took the ball instead of deferring on Thursday? Maybe BVS is not out for the season, maybe Jalen Carter does not spit on Dak. Just like how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know.

Micah and the Eagles: Two reports from NFL insiders regarding Micah Parsons and the Eagles from over the weekend. First, from Dianna Russini: “As the relationship deteriorated [with Dallas], Parsons had two teams on his mind: the Packers and the Eagles.”

As I have written about a million times, it is so clear that Parsons would like to play for the Birds. Russini mentioned that it is close to his Harrisburg home, I can buy that. Preferring Green Bay for “its small-town feel, a reminder of his Penn State days in State College?” That one is a tougher sell, but whatever, the man got his money. Micah and the Pack looked good yesterday against Detroit, by the way.

As Russini reported, there was no way that Parsons was getting traded by Jerruh to the Eagles. What was the Birds’ offer, though? “The biggest offer,” according to Jay Glazer.

I would normally clown Jerry for worrying about in-division trades. I am normally a “Just take the best offer!” guy. But if Glazer is right, a 3 and a 5 versus Kenny Clark is not enough of a difference to shake off those demons. For once, Jerry I do not blame you.

Penn State 34, FIU 0: Did not watch a second of this one. With the Main Line Boys traveling to Happy Valley next week, wake me up for the Oregon game.

Tyrese Maxey, Cowboys fan: I missed this the other night. When I covered the Sixers, I remember once chiding Tyrese Maxey in a scrum. He has one of the highest approval ratings of any athlete in the city, but it was very apparent that he is a Dallas Cowboys fan. When I asked Tyrese who he was rooting for when attending the Eagles-Cowboys game at The Linc in 2022, he said, “No comment” with a smile.

But now, $204 million richer, Tyrese is now saying it with his chest.

And I respect that. You know why? Tyrese Maxey was born and raised in Garland, Texas. You know what county Garland is in? Dallas County. Tyrese is not one of those people who grew up in South Jersey declaring “WE DEM BOYZ!!!!”

(By the way, when it comes to the Eagles’ recent run of excellence, the born-and-raised South Jersey Cowboys Fan losing relevance has been one of the best outcomes. For all of society, honestly.)

One more thing: Ben Simmons has interest from the Knicks but is also considering retirement, per the New York Post’s Stefan Bondy. That five-year $177 million rookie extension Simmons signed all the way back in July 2019 (with the contract starting in the 2020-21 season) is now up. Is Ben gonna play for the minimum somewhere? We will see.

(*Cues up September by Earth, Wind and Fire*)

What a month. Weather is getting good, the Birds are getting going, and oh yeah, a gigantic/humongous/enormous Phillies series this week!

And not for nothing, Philadelphia is currently winning television as well. I am very excited to watch Task, Brad Inglesby’s new Delco-based HBO drama. Anthony interviewed Brad (the show’s creator) and Jeremiah Zagar (the show’s director), in case you missed it. Two super talented and accomplished local guys who are also EPs on this show. Brad created Mare of Easttown, Jeremiah directed Hustle.

But yeah, the Mets are in town for four games. And I am sorry, as good as we all feel about this Phillies team if Trea is OK (seriously, they are playing great baseball), they need to show us something against this team. If you are gonna have a letdown series, make it against Kansas City, the Fish or Arizona. Please Phils, show up over these next four days. For all of our collective sanity.

Now, do I like the pitching matchup tonight (6:45 p.m., NBC Sports Philly and MLB Network)? No, no I do not. Aaron Nola against Nolan McLean, the young man who has been downright filthy since getting called up. The Mets are now relying on three kids in the rotation, because their vets have been terrible. But the kids are pretty good, too. McLean looks like the best of the bunch, as the movement he generates is pretty wicked. Hopefully the Phils fare better the second time, now that they have seen him.

The good news: After tonight, Ranger-Cris-Jesús against three of those underperforming Mets vets. Let’s win a baseball series, fellas.

Your tentative Monday schedule at ​PHLY​:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
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