The Phillies’ road trip ended on a sour note, but I can’t complain. Going 6-1 on a trip – even if it was against some of the weakest teams the league has to offer – is a solid piece of work. But the level of competition should increase this week when the Phillies welcome the Atlanta Braves to town.
The Braves got off to a horrific start to the season, dropping their first seven games. They’ve since stabilized themselves and check in at 25-27. That’s obviously not ideal, but they certainly haven’t eliminated themselves from playoff contention yet. The franchise also has a history of overcoming shaky starts.
After 52 games the @Braves are 25-27 and in a funny thing going on with this team its the identical record they had after 52 games in 2021 and 2022 with both seasons turning out well, so we have hope #BravesCountry
— Braves Inside Source (@boydpc15) May 27, 2025
The teams met in a series in April, in which the Braves took two out of three. That shouldn’t be too surprising, since the Braves have been dominant at home, going 16-9 at Truist Park. Since I already mentioned their overall record, the mathematically inclined readers will have figured out that the Braves must be awful on the road.
The Braves will attempt to reverse their poor road record staring on Tuesday night, and they’ll do it behind starting pitcher Spencer “Owen” Strider. You likely remember Strider, as the strikeout-happy righty took the baseball world by storm in 2022, finished fourth in Cy Young Award voting in 2023, but then had his 2024 season limited to just two starts as he suffered another injury to his once surgically repaired UCL.
Spencer Strider miss the remainder of the 2024 season after undergoing internal brace surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. pic.twitter.com/xGSz2jPPNu
— Braves On FanDuel Sports Network (@FanDuelSNBraves) April 13, 2024
Strider opted against another Tommy John surgery, but rather an internal brace which allowed him to return in less than a year’s time. However, his return hasn’t been smooth. He pitched five innings in a loss to the Blue Jays on April 16th, and then injured his hamstring warming up between starts, prompting a trip to the Injured List.
He made his return on May 20th against the Nationals, but it wasn’t a successful one. He allowed four runs in just 4.1 innings.
Presumably, Strider has not re-injured his hamstring since then and will take the mound on Tuesday night. Normally, that been a good thing for the Braves… at least in the regular season. In nine career starts against the Phillies, he’s 8-0 with a 2.06 ERA. (Would he trade that regular season success for a postseason win against the Phillies? Probably.)
But that was the pre-elbow brace version of Strider. We’ll see if the post-brace version of the pitcher can have similar success.
X-Men character of the series
Cyber
A longtime adversary of Wolverine, Cyber opts for surgery to make himself even stronger, having adamantium grafted to his skeleton. He’s defeated Wolverine a few times over the years, but Wolverine has always prevailed when it really counts.
Additional thought about the series
Some people aren’t taking the Phillies’ recent success seriously because the opponents they’ve played aren’t very good. During their nine-game winning streak, the Phillies beat the Pirates (second worst record in the NL), the Rockies (barely qualify as a major league team), and the Athletics (last place team enduring a lengthy losing streak).
But you can only play who’s on the schedule, and a win counts the same no matter who it’s against. (Keep in mind that the Phillies also have series wins against the other two first place teams in the NL.) The Phillies are going to hit a rough patch at some point this season, so it’s nice that they’ve banked some wins against the bad teams.
If you happen to be one of those Phillies fans who has been unable to enjoy their recent success because it’s been against bad teams or “it doesn’t matter until the playoffs,” then can I ask why you’re even bothering to watch the team this season? Just save yourself the aggravation and rejoin us in October.
We’ll see what happens this week now that they’re not playing the dregs of the baseball world. The Braves dug a hole for themselves with their early season struggles (8.5 games back), and the Phillies already let them make up one of those games the last time they played. Considering the Braves’ struggles on the road, it would be very nice if the Phillies could win this series and make the hole that much harder to climb out of.