A 2009 Rematch Collision Course? Yankees and Phillies Lead Baseball in Wins Through the First Two Months
The New York Yankees just completed a sweep of the San Fransisco Giants and closed their west coast road trip with a record of 7-2. The Yankees are playing fun, unbelievably great baseball heading into June as they have 42 wins to lead majors and have only shown signs of improving. The Bronx Bombers lead the majors in home runs, OPS, and ERA. The starting rotation is statistically the best in baseball, and they are doing it without the reigning Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole.
The Yankees as it currently stands have arguably the two best hitters in baseball, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto. Soto and Judge are two of only three players to have an OPS of over 1.000, the other being Marcel Ozuna who just crept above a 1.000 OPS this past weekend. Judge has been so great that he broke the Yankee record for extra-base hits in the month of May.
Judge hit 26 extra-base hits in May surpassing the 24 extra-base hits that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig hit, two Hall of Famers, and all-time Yankee greats. In Judges’ last 30 games, he has hit .379, a .500 OBP,15 home runs, 29 RBIs while also slugging .932. Judge has also won the AL Player of the Month Award.
Juan Soto has been electric since his Yankee debut as he is hitting a robust .322 with 17 home runs and 53 RBIs. Soto is also tied with Baltimore Oriole Adley Rutschman for game-leading hits after the 7th inning with 5. The clutch performance from Soto is something the Yankees have missed over the past few years. Soto, in a walk year, is performing as well as Judge did in his Yankee walk year and is setting himself up for a record-setting payday this upcoming off-season.
Young stud Luis Gil has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball right now as he pitched to a 6-0 record with a 1.65 era, 0.80 WHIP, and struck out 50 batters in 43.2 innings during May. Gil along with the expected return of Gerrit Cole can supplant the Yankees with arguably the best one, two punches in all of baseball.
The Philadelphia Phillies have been nothing short of dominant to start the season and currently hold a 41-19 record making them the only other team besides the Yankees to be at the 40-win mark by June 3rd. They sit 6.5 games ahead of the Atlanta Braves on June 3rd.
The Phillies are coming out of May with a 20-7 record, 13 games over .500 for the month where the team saw a win streak of six games happen two times. The Phillies have been fueled by NL Player of the Month Bryce Harper who slashed .313/.407/.583 with 7 home runs, and 24 RBIs during his award-winning month.
What makes the Phillies’ early season domination so impressive is that they have played half of their games without their leadoff hitter and All-Star Trea Turner. Turner was hitting .343 before his lengthy absence due to a hamstring injury.
Alec Bohm has been a major reason why the Phillies have had such great early-season success. Bohm has knocked in 49 runs while hitting .304 to begin the year. Bohms’s ability to not be all or nothing with the homerun ball and knock in a ton of runs despite only having five homers played a crucial role in Philadelphia’s ability to have a more diverse lineup.
Great teams need contact guys, and guys that can play a little small ball. If Bohm can keep this up the Phillies may be able to keep their high offensive success rate going heading into the dog days of summer.
The Phillies’ pitching staff has dominated over the first two months of the season, something that makes it even harder to doubt them if they can keep it up, but it is a long season.
Ranger Suarez has statistically been the Phillies’ best pitcher through the first two months of the season, but his track record is not the greatest. This makes you question his ability to keep this success going heading into June, July, August, and eventually October.
If Suarez his success going throughout the entire year, along with Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, and Christopher Sanchez the Phillies are going to be a hard team to knock out once the postseason comes around.
The Phillies look like they may have a chance to beat the Yankees in a potential World Series rematch from 15 years ago. It’s a long season and things can change, but right now baseball seems to be running through New York, and Philadelphia.
