👋 Good morning! I told them to not let us win one. I told them to put us away last night…

And we got Sanchy today, and then in a Game 5 in Philly, anything can happen.

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🎶 All I neeeeedddddddd 🎶

Backs against the wall, heavy underdogs on paper, the Philadelphia Phillies went to Chavez Ravine and out-executed the Los Angeles Dodgers for three straight hours. The post-game show with Tyler, Pat and yours truly from the wee hours (and without the Dodger fans to troll us in the comments and juice the numbers) is here. Give your guy a click and a like to stick it to the Dodger fans.

The last two Octobers, Rob Thomson has pressed a lot of buttons that have blown up in his face Mission Impossible style. The ones that had some logic behind them, the ones that had less logic behind them, the ones that were downright puzzling, it has not mattered. They have all blown up in his face.

So, it is only fair to point out that Thomson’s pitching game-plan in a do-or-die Game 3 out in Los Angeles…

Worked to absolute perfection. The Dodgers only scored one run through eight innings, when the game got out of hand in the good guys’ favor.

A few times with Nola over the past few years, you looked at the radar gun early and said to yourself, “90 mph? That is not gonna get it done.” Well, Nola knew that there would be no RAV4th inning for him to give up two home runs on Wednesday. So, he went max effort and pumped two 95 mph fastballs to Shohei Ohtani in his first at-bat. Good sign, they were his fastest pitches since mid-2024. Mix that velocity in with a Good Nola knuckle curveball, and he threw two scoreless innings.

But that was it. Nola did well, but it was time to pass the baton and introduce Ranger Suárez to the series. He probably should have been introduced in the seventh inning of Game 1, but I digress.

Ranger is not the best Phillies pitcher we have ever seen, but he is certainly one of everyone’s favorites. And that is because, behind that boyish smile and carefree attitude, he is the DAWG of all dawgs. I was barking in the PHLY studios watching him sit the Dodgers down with guile, smarts and his normal six-pitch mix. As is always the case with Ranger when he is on his game, you just do not know what is coming. That is why Scott Boras is gonna get him paid in a few months with a fastball that sits in the low-90s. Hitters stare at that low-90s fastball, precisely because they do not know what is coming. A pitcher’s pitcher.

What a big-game performer. Ranger actually pitched in the Phillies’ last two elimination games — Game 7 against Arizona, Game 4 against the Mets — and he more or less had nothing in either of those starts. But he kept the Phillies in both games, because that is what Ranger does. No moment is too big for him. Like his spiritual predecessor Cliff Lee, Ranger is just gonna rock and fire.

After this game, Ranger’s postseason numbers: 42.2 innings, 1.48 ERA, 44 strikeouts to 13 walks, and one very important save. I hope we get to see him pitch two or three more times in October, just like I hope John Middleton writes him a check in the winter. But if this was the last time, it was an absolute pleasure.

And oh yeah, the bats woke up.

The last time Yoshinobu Yamamoto surrendered more than one earned run in a start, it was August. He is very good. And while the Phillies continued to grind out good at-bats against Yamamoto, it was not until Kyle Schwarber got a 2-0 fastball in the top of the fourth did they make him pay for it. This was a Stairs-ian shot, deep into the Southern California night.

Look at Yamamoto’s face. The horror! I am surprised the ArtButMakeItSports Twitter account has not linked this one to Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.”

Great stat via Todd Zolecki: That 455-foot moonshot was the second-hardest hit homer of Schwarber’s entire career, at 117.2 miles per hour. No. 1? The ball Schwarbs hit off Yu Darvish in San Diego three years ago this month. The man hits nukes all year, but he saves the nukiest nukes for October.

Schwarber homered later in the game, and the top of the order finally woke up. Mssrs. Turner, Schwarber and Harper went 7-13 with five RBIs. That is more like it.

The Phillies could have blown this thing open earlier, but they went 0-7 with runners in scoring position through seven innings. Some super frustrating moments mixed in there. But down two runs, Dave Roberts decided to play it conservative and pitch Clayton Kershaw… who throws like 70 miles per hour at this point. As the Phillies were pouring it on, Roberts made Kershaw wear it to preserve the rest of his bullpen. In the play-by-play booth, Brian Anderson was damn near fighting back tears seeing Kershaw get shelled. Poor fella, you could tell this one really meant a lot to him.

Look, the Phillies are still playing for their season later tonight. Cristopher Sánchez against Tyler Glasnow, who was excellent in Peaky Blinders. The Phillies roughed up Glasnow back in April when he could not handle a widdle wain and cold. Looks like beautiful weather in LA tomorrow, so they will just have to take the same approach they had with Yamamoto and hope Sanchy pitches like Sanchy.

But look, they let us get one…

Headed up to MetLife: Sorry y’all, October Eagles previews are gonna be shorter until we do not have baseball anymore.

Reading and listening to all the film grinders — Fran and The Professor tagged in for a great four-man show yesterday — I got progressively angrier at Kevin Patullo, or whoever comes up with the offensive game-plan. Whoever it is, these guys are not holding up their end of the bargain. The Eagles are 18th in EPA per play and 22nd and success rate. Less with more.

Here is a perfect example: I initially liked the RPOs that we saw last week against Denver, and believe Dallas Goedert and Grant Calcaterra’s receiving yards should be factored into the rushing numbers. But why did the Eagles lean so heavy on RPOs after hardly running any at all the first four weeks? Why not just mix a few in every week? It’s like the Eagles only bring certain chapters of the playbook to a given game. A wise man avoids all extremes, Nick!

In general, the Eagles passing attack has looked like this: Good against man, terrible against zone. Guess what, teams are gonna play zone until you prove that you can beat it. Wink Martindale might not play zone against these current Eagles, but current Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen certainly will. Teams will keep running those sim pressures until the Eagles do something positive against them.

The Giants are not very good, which is part of a trend. The Eagles played a very difficult first five games, and now it’s time to get right before things pick up again. Here are your next four weeks, the eye of the storm:

Can the Birds get this to 7-1 headed into the bye? That would be swell. The Giants seem like a team you can definitely run on, and I just do not think Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo should have much success against this Eagles defense… especially without Malik Nabers. Seems like Nakobe Dean is gonna play, while Jalen Carter is questionable with a heel injury.

Also, I am late on this, but Jalen Hurts sprinting after his Hail Mary was awesome. Almost got there, too. Just like in hoops, you always gotta follow your pass.

The Game 1 lines: The puck drops forreal forreal in South Florida tonight, which is exciting. As always, Charlie’s practice notes are essential if you want to keep up with the Orange and Black.

And the defense, now that Cam York has joined Rasmus Ristolainen on the shelf for at least a week, is not very pretty. Travis Sanheim better be ready to play a bunch of minutes early on. Dennis Gilbert and Noah Juulsen were footnote-type signings on Day 1 of free agency, and they very well might be the third pair.

Anyway, Charlie has hit this point a bunch over the last month or so: The Flyers’ own expectations are pretty divergent from what everyone else expects of them. The Flyers brass (Jones, Briere, Hilferty) did not say the expectation was to make the postseason, but they do think the team will improve from last season. One issue: Everyone else believes that the Flyers will again be towards the bottom of the standings, firmly in The Gavin McKenna Derby.

Cannot wait to see how it plays out. And you know what else I cannot wait for? Our California Takeover trip with John LeClair.

The powder blues: Loved this decision from the Phils, they kept the grays at home.

The Sixers were back at practice on Wednesday. They are not exactly sitting in coach, but I am sure they were quite jetlagged traveling back from Abu Dhabi on a 14-hour flight. If they look terrible on Friday against Orlando, I would get it.

The Sixers did bring some news back with them from the Persian Gulf. Well, two pieces of news, followed by one piece of news/speculation. And with that in mind, three pieces of #content to help you get caught up…

(1) Quentin Grimes shows up: The one guy who was not jetlagged finally made an appearance in Camden, after signing his $8.7 million qualifying offer.

Kyle had a funny line in his piece: “Not exactly a for who, for what sort of moment, and eons away from Grimes taking questions while doing sit-ups in his driveway.”

Grimes said “all the right things,” and “right” in this case means “uncontroversial.” That there are no hard feelings, that he would like to sign a long-term deal in Philly next year, and that he wants to play a two-way role and help the team win. We will be tracking this dynamic throughout the year — Grimes’ willingness to accept the situation, and how the Sixers utilize him with no long-term guarantee — but it was a fairly smooth start. Let’s see if it stays that way.

(2) Three-guard potential: Sounds like VJ Edgecombe is gonna start right away next to Tyrese Maxey. That is cool. After that, though?

You are gonna get some combo of (hopefully) Joel Embiid, (hopefully) Adem Bona and (hopefully not) Andre Drummond at the 5. The question then becomes how you handle the 3 and 4 spots until Paul George returns. You could play Kelly Oubre at the 3 (good positional size, poor positional shooting) or the 4 (poor positional size, maybe OK shooting). Or you can play Grimes at the 3 in a three-guard lineup. Not his natural position, but he has the skill-set to play up a spot.

And it seems like Nick Nurse is at least considering it: “Yeah, I think that’s certainly on the table.” OK then!

(3) Other injury news: Joel Embiid is playing five-on-five and apparently still has a few boxes to check. A few boxes to check, huh?

Is it like this? ☑️☑️☑️☐☐

Or is it like this? ☑️☑️☑️☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Paul George is still only doing individual work, which I sorta expected. Trendon Watford’s hamstring injury is a new annoyance, though. He has a real chance to start at the 4. But as the old adage goes, you can’t start for the club in the tub.

Great, great, great Philly sports night: Phils-Dodgers Game 4 (6:08 p.m., TBS and HBO Max), hopefully Brian Anderson will have recovered by then. Flyers-Panthers are next (7:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly), in the Orange and Black’s season opener. And then the Eagles and Giants (8:15 p.m., Amazon Prime and Fox 29) brave the turf.

And we will be here to watch along with y’all on The YouTube. Let’s hope it does not suck.

Your tentative Thursday schedule at ​PHLY​:

Let’s make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
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