Last month, Joe Giglio declared that the National League East race was already over. The Phillies had run out to the best record in baseball, the Mets were still pulling themselves out of a start that saw them as low as 11 games below .500, and the injury-ravaged Braves looked like a shell of themselves.
Suddenly, the Phils have hit a wall, the Mets have been one of the best teams in baseball for nearly two months, and the Braves have caught fire, as key bats like Matt Olson appear to finally be waking up. With that, the lead in the NL East is down to six games.
So, should Joe start sweating his declaration as a potential jinx?
“I always felt that it had the potential to be a race,” Hugh Douglas said. “Should you be worried? A little bit concerned. The funny thing about baseball and this season and the last couple of seasons, teams have been close and lumped together. I think it’s coming back to the mean now.
“I always felt like it was gonna be a lot tighter race than you thought.”
Even if the NL East race has gotten closer than many thought it would the rest of the season, Joe isn’t sweating it in the slightest bit.
“I have no worry. I haven’t had any worry. I continue to have zero worry,” Joe said. “The Phillies are going to win the National League East.
“The lead going down to six took a combination of things that are unlikely to happen again in the next two months. The Phillies had to get ice cold…and the Braves had to get red hot. And that just cut it to six. Not two or three, six. This is unlikely to continue…and the Phillies, I know it’s hard to feel right now, but they will figure it out and start to win some games…eventually, this will all get evened out.”