The Philadelphia Phillies are coming off their longest winning streak in 11 years of nine straight victories. Sunday’s 13-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks snapped the winning streak, The run lifted the Phightins’ back to a .500 record of 30-30, nine games behind the New York Mets of 1st place in NL East, and more realistically 3.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves for the final NL Wild Card spot. The Phillies-Marlins Series is pivotal for fan’s hope in this team’s playoff chances. 

As of today it is June 13th and it is definitely not the time to get ahead of ourselves with Phillies playoff expectations. Especially when you look around at the top of the NL East and the competitive NL Wild Card race but the Phillies clawed their way back into the competition and win back fan’s hope around the club. That’s why the upcoming three game set against the Miami Marlins is important. Well that and the fact that the Miami Marlins have just been a pest, a thorn in the side, a pain in the butt for the Phillies for the last five seasons posting 44-46 record against them during that span.

Phillies fans know that the Marlins have disrupted the good mojo of the Phillies a few times. The club has played spoiler to the Phillies playoff chances just as recently as last year, handing a few losses in September. They very well could do that if both teams stay in this rank of the standings. 

The Marlins are coming into the series toting a 27-31 record and just two games back of the Phillies in the standings. The club has three notable players to pay attention to and two of course are homegrown. One thing that the Marlins have historically been better at than the Phillies. That’s a whole different head scratching, hair pulling out, wall punching issue saved for another time.

Miami fields the electric, exciting Jazz Chisholm Jr. Chisholm has played there for a few years and is breaking out this season slashing (batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage)  .251/.306/.543, 12 homers, 40 RBI, 31 runs, seven doubles, and four triples. Garrett Cooper is the other homegrown standout posting a .315/.389/.473 slash line, 58 hits, 15 doubles, 27 RBI, 18 walks, and 21 runs. The final is a former World Series MVP Jorge Soler. Soler is slashing .216/.310/.446, with 12 home runs, 11 doubles, 29 RBI, 28 runs and 25 walks. 

The real test of this series will be against the Marlins pitching. The Fish roll out their three best starters in this possibly pivotal series. It will be a clash of team strengths as the Phillies are the second best offense in the NL so far in the month of June. The Phils have a slash line of .281/.352/.538, scored 65 runs, 56 hits, 22 homers, 64 RBI, 16 doubles, and 36 walks. 

Monday’s game is the best matchup on paper with Sandy Alcantara (6-2, 1.61 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 77 K, 83.2 IP) going up against Aaron Nola (4-4, 3.50 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, 85 K, 74.2 IP). Alcantara ranks in the top 5 in the NL in wins, ERA, innings pitched, and strikeouts. A true test for the Phillies mashing lineup. Tuesday has Trevor Rogers (3-5, 5.58 ERA, 1.54 WHIP, 44 K, 50 IP) versus Zach Eflin (2-4, 3.76 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 47 K, 55 IP). The series closes out with a Wednesday day game rolling out the matchup of Pablo Lopez (4-2, 2.30 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 72 K, 70.1 IP) against Kyle Gibson (4-2, 4.41 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 56 K, 63.1 IP).

The Marlins get the Phillies coming off a deflating but much needed embarrassing loss to end their winning streak. The Marlins don’t have to face Phillies ace Zach Wheeler while the Phillies face Miami’s two best in Alcantara and Lopez. The Phillies come into this series having their past problems with the Marlins in the back of their mind as the team’s core, Harper, Hoskins, Realmuto, Nola, Wheeler, has been through it. 

All I know is that it is nice to have this energy towards the Phillies in June. All we can hope is that the club keeps going up and gives us a summer reminding us of why we fell in love and followed this team.