This Week In Philly Sports: Why The Phillies Are Dominating

PHILADELPHIA, PA — It's perhaps the greatest time of the year for Philadelphia sports, as the Sixers gear up for what looks to be a deep playoff run, and the Phillies are launching a season of what should be very high hopes.

The Phils' opening homestead couldn't have gone much better, as they swept the reigning divisional champion Braves three games in a row, then took two out of three from a Mets team that was the dubious beneficiary of a premature coronation after a few offseason moves. It's early, but their 5-1 start is tied for the best in all of baseball.

Meanwhile, the Sixers embarrassed the Boston Celtics, again. And the Eagles will play 17 games in 2021, and nearly nobody involved in the sport thinks this is actually a good thing.

The Phillies are on fire

As Patch so humbly predicted two weeks ago, the Phillies are far better than they've been given credit for in national media.

The projection algorithm over at Fangraphs, which updates itself after every game, has notched the Phillies expected finish from fourth up to third, with a forecasted 82 wins and a 26.4 percent shot at the postseason. Another major algorithm at PECOTA is more bullish, bumping the Phils' up to second place, 87 wins, and a 53 percent chance after their hot start.

This should not be the surprise to these projection systems that it is. The Phillies are the same team that was mostly very good last year, that simply addressed their one glaring weakness in the bullpen. They also made their rotation deeper, and most of their key hitters are a year deeper into their primes.

Didi's magic grab

The most amazing defensive play of the season might have happened on the first day of the season.

It was a play that looked more like a wide receiver's grab in double coverage, or a snag of a frisbee that took an unexpected turn. In the top of the 9th of a tie game, the Braves' Ozzie Albies looped a ball into shallow left field, just out of reach of left fielder Andrew McCutchen and center fielder Roman Quinn.

Gregorious went racing back, misjudging the ball at first and then turning, sliding, and somehow catching it over his shoulder as he fell:

Didi Gregorius is the man. pic.twitter.com/LDH0yq2M1B
— Billy Heyen (@BillyHeyen) April 1, 2021

Wheeler does it all

Phillies starting pitcher Zack Wheeler was nearly perfect against a powerful Braves lineup in game two, throwing seven innings of shutout ball and surrendering only a single hit and no walks.

But that's not all he did.

Now that the designated hitter handicap has mercifully been removed from National League games after a bizarre experiment in 2020, pitchers can hit again. Wheeler went 2 for 3 at the plate with a double, driving in two runs in the Phillies 4-0 victory.

Sixers flip the script on Boston rivalry

Two of the past three years, the Boston Celtics have eliminated the Sixers in the playoffs. They're 8-1 against Philly in those two series. The two teams have young cores that rose at the same time, and it looked as though an intense rivalry was about to be reignited for years to come.

But this year, things have gone all sideways for Boston, and the Sixers are back on top. They trounced the Celtics on Tuesday night, sending Boston under .500 for the year. The Celtics are now in 7th place in the East.

The Sixers remain in second and just half a game out of first place, keeping pace with the Brooklyn Nets atop the East and growing their lead over third place Milwaukee.

This Week in Philly Sports is a weekly dispatch covering the wildest, the weirdest, and the greatest sports city in America. Have something you'd like to see here? Email justin.heinze@patch.com.