Spike Eskin: Phillies overdid celebration with No. 1 seed on line
The Phillies went with their, what has become normal, over-the-top locker room and Xfinity Live celebration last night after winning the NL East, something that Spike Eskin is worried about with the No. 1 seed in the NL still on the line with five games to go.
"Here's my problem, why are we punting games when we do not have the one seed locked up, we do not have the two seed locked up," Spike said on Tuesday's 94WIP Afternoon Show. "They punt this one, what if they just lose tomorrow?
"Why aren't they saying to themselves, you know what we have on off day on Thursday...Why don't you just celebrate on Wednesday night?"
The Phillies are 93-64, 0.5 game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for the No. 1 seed in the National League and home field advantage. Tonight, with Tanner Banks on the mound and many Phillies expected to get the night off, Philadelphia is a +130 underdog against the Cubs at home.
"Now baseball is funny, they could end up winning today, but that's not the point," Eskin said. "The point is, they did that last night with the intention of today is OK if we lose. And it's not OK if we lose today. You need every game you could get. What are we doing? I want them to feel happy that they won, but that seemed like a team that prioritized having a good time and drinking over getting a top two seed when the best player on the team just told me it was important that you get a bye.
"This is just not the right time do it. This team has bigger goals in mind and God forbid we wind up having to play next week. Or God forbid it's the NLCS against the Dodgers and they have to fly to the west coast for the first two games...They should be happy about [winning the division], they should have a good night and go out for a steak dinner somewhere...I wasn't asking them to not be happy about it, I'm asking for them to not get black out drunk."
