Phillies are finally playing well

I was able to go to Wednesday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels to see the Phillies play for the first time since COVID started. The main reason I wanted to go to this game was to see Shohei Ohtani play. And I'm glad I did. Seeing him play was pretty cool. He was supposed to pitch against the Phillies, but he hurt his arm, so he only got to hit, but that was better than him not playing at all. 

I was also lucky enough to be able to see Bryce Harper's 300th home run. He had a great reaction and so did the fans. After the game, he said his goal is to get to 600 home runs. That is possible because he is only 30 years old, but that will be a lot of work. Unfortunately for the Phillies, they lost the game 10-8. In order for the Phillies to make it to the playoffs and go as far as they want, the bullpen has to be more consistent.

The Phillies went 6-2 on this home stand. They had a great month of August, including hitting a team record 59 home runs in one month. Despite this, they are 12 games behind the Atlanta Braves, who have been really good for the whole season.

The U.S. Ryder Cup team was finalized on Tuesday. The event will start Sept. 29th in Italy at the Marco Simone golf course in Rome. This course was essentially built for this event. In the last Ryder Cup, which occurred in Wisconsin in 2021 at Whistling Straits, the U.S. dominated, winning by a score of 19-9. The U.S. will be the favorite to keep the cup this time as well, but it will be a lot closer, considering the U.S. has not won on European soil for 30 years. In Europe, the weather is a lot more unpredictable, which may make the competition closer. I personally do not like the way the U.S. 12-man team selection process works. The captain gets six picks, with only six automatic qualifiers who earn points over a two-year span leading up to the event. I think the ratio should be eight to four captains picks. Go team USA.

I am aware that U.S. Open tennis tournament has begun, but it is virtually impossible to keep up with all of the results of the matches until near the end of the tournament, which isn't until Sept. 9 and 10. On the men’s side, the two best players are still Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, but Americans Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul have a good chance to go pretty far in the tournament. On the women’s side, Jessica Pegula is the American with the best chance to be in the tournament by the end of the second week. Iga Swiatek from Poland is clearly the new No. 1 player in the world right now. We will see what happens.