2024 Philadelphia Phillies Resemble Previous World Series Champs

For the first time in 2024, the Philadelphia Phillies are a .500 ballclub.

The Phillies evened their record at 4-4 on Saturday with a 5-2 win over the Washington Nationals, winning back-to-back games for the first time this year. Since dropping its first two games of the season, Philadelphia has rebounded to win four of its last six.

That may not sound like much of an accomplishment, but it's encouraging to see the Phillies at .500 given their recent history of slow starts.

Last year, Philadelphia struggled early on without Bryce Harper and was still below .500 into mid-June. The year before that, the Phillies were 21-29 at the end of May, costing manager Joe Girardi his job in early June.

Both times, Philadelphia recovered to make the playoffs, but it's fair to wonder if either season would have ended differently if the team had gotten off to a better start.

So while a .500 record through eight games isn't anything to brag about, it still qualifies as improvement. It also matches Phillies' record at the same point during their two previous championship seasons.

For what it's worth, Philadelphia also started the 1980 and 2008 campaigns 4-4 and ended up winning the World Series both years, proving that it sometimes pays off to avoid slow starts.

There's still a long way to go, but wins in April count just as much as wins in September. The Phillies need to play well wire-to-wire if they want to finally dethrone the Atlanta Braves and win their first division title since 2011.

The Braves suddenly look vulnerable with Saturday's news that Spencer Strider will likely miss the rest of the season with an elbow injury. If Philadelphia can capitalize with a strong start, maybe this season will end with a strong finish as well.