Perhaps no team improved more this past offseason than the Philadelphia Phillies, fulfilling their promise to spend ‘stupid money’ and taking themselves from a mediocre group to the favorite to win the National League East.
Among their acquisitions were two former MVPs in Bryce Harper and Andrew McCutchen. Harper, of course, signed a record-breaking 13-year contract to commit himself to the Phillies longterm. In addition to the outfielders, the Phillies also traded for J.T. Realmuto.
One of the other teams that showed interest in Harper was the Los Angeles Dodgers, although they were said to only be keen on signing him to a short-term contract.
The Dodgers and Phillies met for the first time this season this past weekend, and despite all of Philadelphia’s acquisitions, L.A. showed them why they are still the overall favorites in the NL as they swept the three-game series at Dodger Stadium.
After Sunday’s 8-0 win, Chris Taylor explained why he felt the sweep carried some significance for the Dodgers, as seen on SportsNet LA:
“That’s a team we could possibly see in the postseason this year. So to come in and play good baseball, get a good series win, sweep a team of their caliber, that’s a big series for us.”
Los Angeles outscored Philadelphia, 18-6, in the series and now has a record of 41-19 on the season. That’s good for a nine-game lead in the NL West and a seven-game lead on the rest of the NL. Their plus-94 run differential is the best in the league by 48 runs.
The 2019 season has felt a lot more like the 2017 version of the Dodgers where seemingly everything went right for them up until the World Series loss to the Houston Astros, as opposed to 2018 when the team had to scratch and claw just to make it to the postseason after a poor start to the year.
With Cody Bellinger and Joc Pederson developing into true superstars and the likes of Taylor, Corey Seager and Justin Turner, who started the season slow, starting to come on as of late, the Dodgers really are clicking on all cylinders at the moment.
Leading up to the All-Star break, they play 25 of their 31 games against NL West teams, so they have an opportunity to essentially put the division to bed by the halfway point of the season if they continue their current dominance over the next month.
The Phillies, on the other hand, will likely be in a dog race to win their division all season long.
