36 Reasons Why The Phillies Will Beat The Braves

Or 36 reasons why we should be optimistic, at least.

1. The Braves have never won a postseason series against the Phillies.

2. Spencer Strider has a career postseason ERA of 19.29.

3. In his career, Nick Castellanos is 2 for 5 with 2 home runs against Bryce Elder.

4. Ronald Acuna, Jr.’s career batting average against pitchers who I cherry-picked: .000 vs Jose Alvarado, .143 vs Seranthony Dominguez, .200 vs Matt Strahm, .250 vs Zack Wheeler, .250 vs Taijuan Walker.

5. The Braves’ mascot sucks. Wtf is a Blooper.

   

6. Zack Wheeler currently has the lowest career WHIP in MLB postseason history (minimum 40 innings piched) at 0.732.

7. Through 2 postseason games, Trea Turner is slashing .571/.625/.857 (1.482 OPS).

8. Max Fried’s career postseason ERA in 18 games is 4.43. And against the Phillies, it’s 10.80.

9. Bryce Harper has 6 hits and 4 home runs in 9 career plate appearances vs Braves closer Raisel Iglesias.

10. The Phillies knocked a 104-win Braves team out of the playoffs in 1993. This year the Phillies are taking on a 104-win Braves team.

11. Since July 1, the Phillies (48-34 including 2 postseason wins) and Braves (49-31) have similar records.

12. Since September 1, the Phillies (18-12 including 2 postseason wins) have a better record than the Braves (15-13).

13. In 61 career plate appearances, Matt Olson has never hit a home run off of Matt Strahm, Cristopher Sanchez, Jose Alvarado, Gregory Soto, Ranger Suarez, Taijuan Walker, Seranthony Dominguez, or Jeff Hoffman. Olson has just 1 home run in 24 career plate appearances vs Aaron Nola.

14. The Phillies have a magical song.

15. In 27 career regular season games against the Braves, Zack Wheeler has a 3.18 ERA and 1.20 WHIP.

    

16. In their careers, Brandon Marsh and Alec Bohm are a combined 4 for 8 against Bryce Elder.

17. From 1945 through 2022, 76 teams won 100+ games (like this year’s Braves). Only 17 of them (22%) won the World Series.

18. Brad Hand plays for the Braves.

19. Aaron Nola has a career 3.40 ERA against the Braves in the regular season, with a 15-10 record and 203 strikeouts in 206.2 innings. Nola has a career 0.00 ERA against the Braves in the postseason, with a 1-0 record and 6 strikeouts in 6 innings.

20. The Phillies have never lost a postseason game with Johan Rojas in the lineup.

21. Bryce Harper had a .974 OPS against the Braves in the 2023 regular season.

22. In his career, Marcell Ozuna is 13 for 72 (.181) with 1 HR against the combined efforts of Zack Wheeler, Ranger Suarez, Craig Kimbrel, Jeff Hoffman, and Seranthony Dominguez.

23. In postseason franchise history, the Phillies have won 70% of their games against the Braves.

24. Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh, and Trea Turner have a combined 9 hits in 16 combined at bats vs Raisel Iglesias.

25. Historically, the Phillies have won the World Series every time one of their players hit a postseason grand slam. Bryson Stott hit a postseason grand slam this year.

    

26. Ozzie Albies has a career batting average of .200 or lower and a career OPS of .650 or lower against each of these pitchers: Ranger Suarez, Taijuan Walker, Seranthony Dominguez, Matt Strahm, Jose Alvarado, Zack Wheeler, and Craig Kimbrel.

27. Kyle Schwarber can beat up Austin Riley.

28. Since moving to Atlanta, the Braves only have 6 pennants despite 25 postseason appearances. The Phillies have 8 pennants in just 16 postseason appearances.

29. JT Realmuto has 3 home runs in 12 at bats against Kyle Wright.

30. Cristian Pache is hitless in 9 career at bats against the Braves, so he’s due.

31. In 2022 the Braves finished 14 games ahead of the Phillies, and the Phillies beat the Braves in the NLDS. In 2023 the Braves finished 14 games ahead of the Phillies.

32. This is off-topic, but remember when the Mets spent half a billion dollars to miss the playoffs? LMAO

33. Edmundo Sosa had an .832 OPS over the last 50 games of the regular season.

34. Orion Kerkering. Nuff said.

35. Brandon Marsh has a career 1.144 OPS against Spencer Strider.

36. The Phillies’ postseason record at Citizens Bank Park is 24-11. If they can win one of the first two games in Atlanta before the series relocates to Philadelphia, you have to like their chances. We’ve got about 50,000 lunatics waiting with rally towels and D-U-I chants. The Braves will have to beat all of us.

It’s tough to play in the jungle, man.