Philadelphia Phillies Pulled Off One of 'Most Mind-Blowing' Feats in 2024

The Philadelphia Phillies were able to produce one of the craziest results of the year in 2024.

Oct 5, 2024; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber (12) celebrates with Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos (8) after hitting a solo home run against the New York Mets in the first inning in game one of the NLDS for the 2024 MLB Playoffs at Citizens Bank Park / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

There's no doubt the Philadelphia Phillies didn't have the ending to the season they envisioned.

After getting off to a hot start and owning the best record in Major League Baseball at the All-Star break, they seemingly were in cruise control during the second half that carried over into the playoffs with their early elimination in the NLDS against the New York Mets.

The issues that plagued them this year were the same things that allowed the Arizona Diamondbacks to come back from the brink of elimination in the National League Championship Series the postseason prior, and despite the roster having clear issues with strikeouts, the front office hasn't done anything to address it.

That was on display at different moments throughout the year.

In fact, there were three different games where the Phillies struck out 17 times during the campaign, a brutal number for any team.

However, Jayson Stark of The Athletic highlighted how Philadelphia was able to pull off one of the most "mind-blowing" feats of the 2024 season when they went 3-0 in those contests.

"Meanwhile, all the other teams out there had 10 games this year when they struck out 17 times (or more). So how many times did all those teams win a game like that? That would be exactly one!" he wrote.

That truly is crazy to think about.

Despite being wrung up that many times, the Phillies were still able to do enough where they didn't lose, something that only occurred 10% of the time for all the other teams who had 17-plus strikeouts in a single game.

This highlights how they were able to win in multiple ways throughout the regular season, something that propelled them to their first NL East title in 13 years.

Unfortunately, they might have used up all their luck in those contests.

Philadelphia stuck out 38 times against the Mets, including 11 K's in the elimination game.

They have operated with a free-swinging approach under hitting coach Kevin Long, and while that has resulted in high-level offensive numbers over the past few years, it's also come back to haunt them when things aren't clicking.

Ideally, the Phillies avoid this in 2025 and do a much better job of being disciplined at the plate, even if they were able to overcome their high strikeout numbers during the regular season in 2024.