The road to the playoffs starts for most MLB baseball teams this Friday. The Phillies start by playing the San Diego Padres at home for the first time since the NLCS last year. The Padres are one of the most disappointing teams in baseball this year. We can only hope that that continues this weekend.
I’ve heard rumors for weeks that Bryce Harper is going to start playing first base. The Phillies need to make this decision fast so they get better on defense by putting Kyle Schwarber at the DH. This will make the overall outfield defense better. Sadly, the only chance for the Phillies to make the playoffs is through the wild card because they let the Braves get way ahead of them by 12 games in the division. I also hope that Ranger Suárez was able to get healthy during the All-Star break because I am concerned that he is injured again. I hope that is not the case.
It is also nice to see the Baltimore Orioles having their second good season in a very long time after doing a baseball version of tanking for a number of years. The last time they were in the playoffs was 2016 and that was only the wild card game. Before that, it was in the early 2000s. That was very unfortunate for baseball because the Orioles are an important franchise in terms of baseball history. Cal Ripken Jr. is my favorite non-Phillies player in modern baseball history. It is much more difficult to recover from tanking in baseball than basketball because you need a lot more good players to field a great baseball team. Now they have some talent in center fielder Gunnar Henderson, right fielder Anthony Santander and catcher Adley Rutschman. As of now, the Orioles are only two games behind the Tampa Bay Rays for the lead in the American League East division.
Wimbledon is coming to conclusion this weekend. I think they’re going to get their dream final in the men’s event between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz. I will be rooting for Alcaraz to win because Djokovic has already won seven Wimbledon titles and the torch needs to be passed to a different generation. On the women’s side, there will be a first-time grand slam winner between Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic. The finals are always fun to watch.
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A 2002 Cape grad and 2007 UD grad, Lewes resident Sumner Spence is one of the Cape area's biggest sports fans. Although he’s used a wheelchair his entire life, he has lived vicariously through his sports-playing father, brother, and friends, who gave him his love of sports. He hopes to provide new and interesting perspectives on the sports stories and issues of the day. Email Sumner at sumspence@gmail.com.
