The game of baseball requires many player archetypes to compete for positions on major league (and professional) rosters. Sluggers, contact hitters, and defensive wizards all have their place within the game. But there’s another group of players (albeit a smaller genre) who are still around and have made their way onto World Series-winning rosters: the utility players.

This group usually has a higher floor and lower ceiling than the others, but if you can find an excellent one, the goal is to keep him around as long as possible. And while a player like Phil Linz wasn’t a star utility man, he still carved out a seven-year career in the major leagues, while also being the key cog in one of the most famous stories in Yankees history.

Philip Francis Linz

Born: June 4, 1939 (Baltimore, MD)
Died: December 9, 2020 (Leesburg, VA)
Yankees Tenure: 1962-1965

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Linz grew up playing baseball. He wasn’t the biggest kid, but he was good enough to be signed by the Yankees straight out of Calvert Hall College High School in 1957. His hometown squad in the Baltimore Orioles didn’t sign him because one of their scouts, Walter Youse, was also Linz’s head coach at Calvert Hall, and he knew that Linz’s vision was terrible. He couldn’t see and, most importantly, he refused to wear glasses. But after signing, he began wearing them in the minor leagues.

In 1957 and 1958, Linz, at 18 and 19 years old, played Class-D ball for the Kearney Yankees in Kearney, Nebraska, and the Auburn Yankees in Auburn, New York. He batted .230 with Kearney and then, following that first season in the minors, saw his average jump up to .283. In 1959, he got promoted to the Class-C Modesto Reds, where he hit .298 in 141 games played, and he saw another jump to Class-B with the Greensboro Yankees in 1960 at the age of 21. He hit for over .300 for the first time in his career (.321 to be exact) in 126 games, excelling in the contact area of the game as he hit only four homers out of his 505 at-bats and 162 hits. He also won the Carolina League batting title that season by .0002 points as well.

Linz’s performance year-over-year earned him the call-up to the Double-A Amarillo Gold Sox, where he played 105 of his 119 minor league games that season (the other 15 were when he was called up to Triple-A Richmond). He hit .349 in Double-A with an .851 OPS. He won his second straight minor league batting title that season, earning a trip to the major leagues and the opportunity to wear the pinstripes for the first time.

While he did receive that chance in 1962 under manager Ralph Houk, it wasn’t in a full-time role. Instead, Linz battled for the starting shortstop position in spring training, lost to Tom Tresh (who ended up playing 157 games that season), and was used as a utility player, playing all around the infield and even a few games in the outfield, mostly as a pinch-hitter or pinch-runner. In total, he played 71 games that season, slashing .287/.316/.372. And despite not playing a game in the postseason, he still received a World Series ring after a 4-3 series defeat of the San Francisco Giants. It was more of the same in 1963, playing where his manager needed him and as a pinch-hitter or runner in 72 games. He did go back to the World Series that year, but the Yankees were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, this time he did manage to make three separate appearances, all of which were of pinch-hit variety. Linz’s biggest feat was singling off Sandy Koufax in Game 4.

The 1964 season was the best for Linz in a variety of areas, including games played, on-base percentage, OPS, and OPS+. But that wasn’t the biggest story of the season for Linz. Instead, the biggest story came because of a hobby. On a road trip to Chicago to play the White Sox, Linz ended up purchasing a harmonica for fun. But following the wrong end of a four-game sweep in a tight pennant race, the harmonica was the last thing that Yogi Berra, a first-year manager unhappy with his team’s performance before going to play the Boston Red Sox, wanted to hear from the back of the team bus.

Linz decided to practice the instrument to take his mind off not playing during the series, and began playing the only song he knew: Mary Had a Little Lamb. And, of course, it sounded as good as a first-time harmonica player could make it sound. The rest of the story is told best by Yankees player and former teammate of Linz, Jim Bouton, in his book “Ball Four:”

“Yogi, who was in the front of the bus, stood up and said, “Knock it off.”

Legend has it that Linz wasn’t sure what Berra said, so he turned to Mickey Mantle and asked, “What’d he say?”

“He said play it louder,” Mantle explained.

Linz didn’t believe that. On the other hand he didn’t stop. In a minute Yogi was in the back of the bus, breathing heavily and demanding that Linz shove that thing up his ass.

“You do it,” Linz said, flipping the harmonica at him. Yogi swatted at it with his hand and it hit Pepitone in the knee. Immediately he was up doing his act called, “Ooooooh, you hurt my little knee.” Pretty soon everybody was laughing, even if you’re not supposed to laugh after losing, especially a doubleheader.”

The story went around like wildfire, as team journalists who were on that bus couldn’t wait to write it and turn it in to their editors for publication. Linz was inevitably fined $200 (approximately $2,148.52 today) for the incident, even though it blew over and he wasn’t suspended. However, while earning $14,000 on his contract that year, he also received a $5,000 endorsement deal from harmonica maker Hohner, making the $200 not even a dent in his earnings. He also received $200 from Houk for music lessons.

But the story got even better when it was viewed as the turning point for the Yankees’ season. They lost the first two games in Boston but went on a 23-6 run, finishing 30-13 the rest of the season to finish ahead of the White Sox for the American League pennant by one game. From then on, Linz became a legend.

Linz ended up becoming the starting shortstop following an injury to Tony Kubek’s wrist, and he batted leadoff against the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. He was given the leadoff hitter position and hit .226 with two solo home runs off Barney Schultz and Bob Gibson, but the Yankees ultimately lost the title in seven games and then Berra was fired after the season.

Linz was with the Yankees for one more season under a new coach (playing 99 games and batting .207) before being traded to the Phillies for utility player Ruben Amaro in a one-for-one deal. He appeared in only 63 games over a season and a half before he was traded in July of 1967 to the New York Mets for second baseman Chuck Hiller. In 102 total games for the Mets, he hit .209 with a 46 OPS+. Linz played his final season of major league baseball at age 29 in 1968 after rejoining the Mets because he still wanted to play. But his best days were behind him, and he moved on to the restaurant business, where he created and owned a sports bar, Mr. Laffs, for 23 years, along with a couple of other restaurants. Linz passed away at the age of 81.

One of the most famous Yankees to play the game came not from his ability to crush the baseball over the outfield fences, but instead from a measly harmonica. The legend of him will live forever through books, articles, and oral stories from Yankees legends who passed it down through generations. Happy birthday, Phil.

The 2026 Red Sox continue to find themselves in an excessively bizarre situation. On one hand, they’ve looked like a trainwreck on the field; particularly their home field, where they still haven’t won a game at Fenway Park with Chad Tracy at the helm in which the opponent has scored more than one run. Every day, they reach a new depth of futility and do something that hasn’t been done by a Red Sox team since before the television was invented. In short, there’s a large contingent of fans who (probably rightfully) believe the club needs a giant enema.

But I don’t think they’re going to get it, because even after all the toxic waves that have battered the ship, the Red Sox still find themselves a mere 3.5 games out of a playoff spot thanks to the combination of that ridiculous third Wild Card spot, and a historically ghastly American League, where just five teams currently reside over .500. Even crazier, Fangraphs expects that number to drop between now and the end of September, with only four teams (the Yankees, Rays, Guardians and Mariners) projected to finish north of 81 wins.

Combine this landscape with the current temperature inside the walls of Fenway, and some have concluded that Craig Breslow is going to make the Red Sox buyers over the next eight weeks to save his own skin, particularly after John Henry sided with him and dumped Alex Cora at the end of April.

Those thoughts were only further amplified yesterday afternoon when Buster Olney reported on The Just Baseball podcast that the Red Sox were aggressively looking to add a right handed bat. Here’s Tyler Milliken with the quote and the clip:

From @Buster_ESPN on the Red Sox being desperate to add a right-handed bat, via @JustBB_Media:

“What I’ve heard today is… they are aggressively looking for a right-handed hitter and signaling to the industry, look we’re willing to take on money” pic.twitter.com/NLl3YgmwAh

— Tyler Milliken (@tylermilliken_) June 3, 2026

If it were just Craig Breslow making this push, that would be one thing, but when I hear that the Red Sox are “aggressively” pursuing a right handed hitter and they’re “willing to take on money” to get it done, that has John Henry’s fingerprints all over it. Craig Breslow can mortgage the farm system in a quest to save his own job, but he can’t loosen the purse strings. Only the top dog can change the budget.

So the obvious question is “Why now?”

Well, if I had to guess, I’d say it has everything to do with the enormous Fenway Corners Real Estate project that’s about to get underway in the neighborhood(s) surrounding Fenway Park. (They’ve already started moving the Citgo sign.)

Directly from that link, this project is going to include:

• 2 million square feet of commercial, residential, retail uses
• 200+ new residences
• 40+ new retail doors
• 2 acres of new/improved public open space
• 1 acre of public open space at the front door to Fenway park through the pedestrianization of Jersey Street

The health of this project is going to be at or near the top of John Henry’s priority list for the foreseeable future, and one of the single biggest things he can do to bolster its success and raise the value of every square foot that’s being developed is to aggressively ensure Red Sox are putting a competitive product on the field.

Think about it: Henry can’t afford to have the Red Sox be the laughing stock they’ve become for most of the post Mookie Betts era if he wants people to pay top dollar for Fenway Corners. The project is categorically more lucrative if the Red Sox are playing good baseball and there are postseason games being played at Fenway Park.

And on that note, there hasn’t been a postseason game at Fenway Park since October of 2021. Couple that with the looming lockout this winter, and there’s a chance that if the Red Sox don’t find a way to get postseason baseball back to Fenway this October, we might not see it again until at least 2028. That is way, way too long to fit into the Fenway Corners timeline, which is supposed to be nearing completion in the fall of that year.

In other words, based on the shots publicly fired in recent days between the MLBPA and the owners, Henry might need the 2026 Red Sox to make a serious run at October. If they do, you can sell it as “we made the playoffs in 2025, then we came back and did it again after a rough start in 2026, and in general were on the up and up.” If the current disaster continues though, then 2025 becomes the anomaly, and the Red Sox could be headed for their longest stretch without a playoff baseball game played at Fenway Park in decades.

Knowing this, it’s also a good time to review John Henry’s history, because when he puts his focus on something, he generally gets results. He did it with soybean futures to make his fortune, he did it in his early days in Boston winning multiple World Series titles, he’s done it with Liverpool in recent years (including a UEFA Champions League title and two Premier League titles since the Red Sox last won it all in 2018), and, most recently, he successfully backed the PGA tour in their war with LIV Golf, which they won.

That last one is important, because not only was it something that had Henry flying all around the world in 2024 to establish a foothold, but it also marks the last time he gave a really informative public quote about where Fenway Sports Group (FSG) is going. And so far, it appears he was telling the truth. Here’s what I consider to be the money passage from a story in the Boston Globe about Henry’s PGA investments from 2024:

Asked how FSG’s investment in the PGA Tour, its first in a sports league, fits within FSG’s growth strategy, Henry initially indicated it could mark the final asset addition.

“It means that we’re not looking to grow at this point,” Henry said. “I hate to say that on the record, but we’ve got our hands full with Boston, Liverpool, this, Pittsburgh [Penguins], NASCAR, real estate.”

Not only has that proven accurate over the last two years (most notably, FSG didn’t pursue the Celtics or another NBA franchise), but they’re also selling the Pittsburgh Penguins for about double the value from when they acquired them in 2021. (That transition of ownership is expected to occur later this month.)

Not only does that give John Henry more cash to play with in the shot-term, but it also means that for the first time in a long time, his primary focus appears to be in Boston. The physical signs are also there: He’s been at just about every Red Sox home game this season, he’s been signing autographs for fans, and he even logged back on to Twitter in the spring to troll Dan Shaughnessy.

In the macro, this is a positive, because one of the worst things to happen to the Red Sox in recent years was them becoming just another line item in John Henry’s portfolio. The pattern is pretty clear: When you’re John Henry’s primary focus, you get his full attention, and you’re usually successful. When you’re just part of John Henry’s empire, you blend into the background and wilt into decay.

Based on recent evidence, it seems the Red Sox are moving back into the foreground due to their obvious role in Fenway Corners, and if you view Buster Olney’s comments through that lens, it’s hard to envision the Red Sox being sellers at this deadline.

You can argue Henry won’t be successful this time, but it’s becoming harder to argue he’s not going to at least try to save the 2026 season.

The Red Sox have to make a decision on Tommy Kahnle today. He opted out of his minor league deal with the Red Sox on Tuesday, and we’re approaching the end of 48-hour window where the team needs to call him up to prevent him from becoming a free agent. Since he would both provide a veteran presence in the clubhouse and has been great in Worcester (to the tune of a 1.40 ERA), it seems like the prudent move to clear a roster spot for him.

The spot that seems to make the most sense is Ryan Watson, who is a Rule 5 guy and needs to be offered back to the Giants if he doesn’t stay on the Red Sox 26-man roster all season. The fact the Red Sox let Ryan Watson go three innings to close out Payton Tolle’s gem last night also makes me think it could be him. This essentially burns all his bullets and rests the rest of the bullpen before you make the switch. We’ll know more in a few hours though.

Talk about this and whatever else you’d like in this thread, and as always, be good to one another.

For Hickory, Owen Proksch had just his second bad outing of the season allowing four runs in 1.2 IP, walking one, striking out one and giving up a homer. Aneudis Mejia struck out two in 1.1 scoreless innings.

Josh Springer was 3 for 4 with a double. Yolfran Castillo was 2 for 4 with a stolen base. Hector Osorio had a hit and a walk. Paulino Santana had a hit and a golden sombrero.

Hickory box score

Hub City starter J’Briell Easley struck out four and walked two in three shutout, no hit innings. Brock Porter walked four and struck out four in five shutout, one hit innings. Joey Danielson walked two and allowed a walkoff two run double — just the second hit the Crawdads gave up in the game.

Paxton Kling, Gleider Figuereo and Chandler Pollard all had a hit and a stolen base apiece. Malcolm Moore and Yeison Morrobel each had a hit.

Hub City box score

For Frisco, Josh Trentadue struck out three and walked two in two innings, allowing two runs. Wilian Bormie walked one and struck out one in a shutout inning.

Rehabbing Corey Seager went 0 for 3 and played shortstop. Rehabbing Wyatt Langford went 1 for 3 with a homer and a walk as the DH.

Dylan Dreiling was 2 for 5 with a double. Rafe Perich homered and walked. Keith Jones II had a hit. Ian Moller had a hit.

Frisco box score

Round Rock starter Josh Stephan allowed three runs in five innings, walking three, striking out three and giving up a homer. Gavin Collyer struck out one in a scoreless inning. Michel Otanez allowed a two run homer in an inning of work, striking out three.

Newly signed Jarred Kelenic hit the ground running, going 3 for 4 with a double and a walk. Cam Cauley was 2 for 4 with a walk. Blaine Crim had a hit and two walks.

Round Rock box score

Major League Baseball star Lars Nootbaar thought it was just a normal interview — until a familiar face appeared on the screen.

The St. Louis Cardinals outfielder was in mid-discussion with ESPN’s Eduardo Perez before Sunday Night Baseball at Fenway Park when the conversation turned to one of the most important people in his life.

“She’s my everything. She’s my best friend,” Lars said of his mother.

Seconds later, Lars realized she was watching the interview live and had been brought into the conversation as a surprise guest.

Watch the video below to see Lars' reaction when he realizes his mom is live with them!

Humankind is your go-to spot for good news! Click here to submit your uplifting, cute, or inspiring video moments for us to feature. Also, click here to subscribe to our newsletter bringing our top stories of the week straight to your inbox.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLB player Lars Nootbaar surprised by mom during live interview

No scoring here, because trying to gauge this sort of thing when a rehab setback is nearly expected with pitchers will only end in metaphorical tears.

The Braves have gotten a mild flurry of injury updates on the progress of young arms like Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep, and AJ Smith-Shawver in their respective rehabs and returns from injury.

Schwellenbach was already a standout starter when he went down: his career line is 77/82/78 (wow) (ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-) in 38 starts spanning 234 1/3 innings. However, he went down with a fractured elbow (what) in the middle of last season, and then experienced inflammation in the offseason. In the early days of Spring Training camp, he underwent surgery to remove bone spurs in the offending (offended?) elbow. He’s been throwing, but there’s no real timeline for him, and at this point, it seems like he might come back to make a few outings down the stretch (if it’s even worth it), if at all. But, he’s the guy with demonstrated big league success (and then some)… though to what extent he’ll be able to replicate that after a very long injury-related layoff remains to be seen.

Hurston Waldrep was one of the few fun stories the Braves experienced last year. He had a 68/79/89 line last year across ten big league appearances. Spring Training-related ramp up revealed some elbow soreness, and he also underwent bone spurs cleanup surgery. Waldrep is further along than Schwellenbach, and began a rehab assignment in the minors earlier this week. With no setbacks, he could be back sooner rather than later… though what that means for the Braves’ bulk guy-stuffed roster is uncertain.

AJ Smith-Shawver was a nearly-forgotten name amid all the other drama that befell the Braves last season. He underwent Tommy John Surgery after that whole sordid mess where it took Spencer Strider noticing something was up from the dugout. Smith-Shawver will be starting a rehab assignment soon, so he’s in between Waldrep and Schwellenbach timeline-wise. Given that he was very raw and inconsistent in limited MLB exposure (just 74 innings, 88/115/115), it’s hard to know what to expect from Smith-Shawver. There are a lot of feel-related things that take a while to come back for many post-rehab pitchers, but he didn’t have much feel to begin with, so… who knows.

The Braves have a few other injured pitchers on their roster, but they’re really wild card picks at best. I’m not sure Joe Jimenez is coming back; messaging from the team has been morose to non-existent regarding his status. Joey Wentz is out with an ACL injury suffered in Spring Training, so that’s that. There’s also Danny Young — the Braves could probably use a good left-handed reliever, and Young has dominated lefties en route to an overall 101/80/80 line. Like Smith-Shawver, he had Tommy John Surgery last year, with his coming about a month before Smith-Shawver’s. That said, we haven’t really heard anything about Young’s progress, but he’s an easier plug-and-play onto this roster at the moment.

So, those are the choices. Who ya got?

I thought about it again, yes I did.

What’s that, you’re asking?

I thought about just posting the final score of this game as a one-line recap.

“The Cubs lost to the Athletics 5-4 in 10 innings,” the one line would have read.

But you come here for a recap of Cubs games, and by gum you are going to get one, and it’s not gonna be pretty.

This game didn’t start out pretty, either. Colin Rea got four ground balls in the first inning. That’s good! Unfortunately, there was also a walk sandwiched in there, and the A’s beat two double-play relays, scoring a run on one of them for a 1-0 lead. Then Rea gave up a one-out double and two-out single in the second and the Cubs trailed 2-0. It might have been worse if not for this nice sliding grab by Seiya Suzuki [VIDEO].

To the surprise of many, the Cubs did actually come back. Suzuki began the comeback with this monster home run leading off the second [VIDEO].

One out later, Dansby Swanson doubled, but was stranded. In the third, Nico Hoerner led off with a double and Pete Crow-Armstrong launched this ball into the bleachers [VIDEO].

The Cubs had the lead!

The lead was extended in the fourth. Ian Happ led off with a double — already the Cubs’ fifth extra-base hit of the game.

That was also a milestone in Happ’s career [VIDEO].

Much more on Happ’s 1,000th career hit from BCB’s JohnW53:

Ian Happ’s fourth-inning double made him the 37th player with 1,000 hits in games as a Cub. Those 37 are just 1.6 percent of all 2,295 who have played for the Cubs.

The last with a 1,000th hit had been Anthony Rizzo, with the second of his two doubles at home against the Mets on Aug. 27, 2018. Rizzo finished with 1,311 as a Cub, to rank 20th, between Bill Nicholson (1,323) and Tom Burns (1,299).

The total hit count for the 38 range from Cap Anson (3,012), Ernie Banks (2,583) and Billy Williams (2,510), to Andy Pafko (1,048), Derrek Lee (1,046) and Hack Wilson (1,017). Starlin Castro fell just nine hits, with 991.

Happ is the 1,415th MLB player to reach 1,000 hits in a career — 6.0 percent of all 23,658 big leaguers. Four of them made exactly 1,000: Orator Shafer, 1874-90; Birdie Tebbetts, 1936-52; Dee Fondy, 1951-58; and James Carroll, 2002-13. Scott Brosius made 1,001 in 1991-2001 and Jim Hickman made 1,002 in 1962-74. Shafer, Fondy and Hickman are among 273 players with at least 1,000 hits who spent time with the Cubs — 19.3 percent of all 1,414, about one of every five.

And some postgame comments from Happ about what that all means:

"That's what makes it so special, just being with this team for as long as I have, wearing this uniform … The fans have given me so much here, that's the most special part. Every day they're here, they're supportive."

Ian Happ reflects on his 1000th career hit and his career… pic.twitter.com/enZZPUEJU5

— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) June 4, 2026

One out after Happ’s milestone hit, this happened [VIDEO].

So this was a discussion among our group in the bleachers, and maybe with you too. Would you have sent Busch to try for an inside-the-park home run on that hit? He was slowing down at third, obviously due to a stop sign third-base coach Quintin Berry put up. But if running full speed? It would have taken a perfect throw to get him at the plate. Would have been close, to be sure, but… would you have done it?

Busch wound up stranded. That fifth run would have made a difference, obviously.

Rea settled down after those first two innings and allowed only two further baserunners, one of whom he picked off. He was removed with one out in the top of the sixth after just 69 pitches. Seemed a bit odd after he’d thrown 98 and 92 in his two previous starts and had an extra day of rest due to Monday’s off day. Hoby Milner finished the sixth without incident.

Jacob Webb threw a scoreless seventh so the Cubs went to the eighth with a 4-2 lead and relievers set up the way Craig Counsell drew it up — Caleb Thielbar for the eighth and Daniel Palencia for the ninth.

Unfortunately, Thielbar had a bad inning. He served up a 426-foot homer to pinch-hitter Colby Thomas leading off the inning, then a single and double tied the game 4-4. Phil Maton came in and I had visions of this 4-4 game suddenly becoming a 6-4 or 7-4 deficit. Maton did allow a hit but got out of the inning with the game still tied.

In the bottom of the inning, Alex Bregman led off with a walk but Suzuki hit into a double play. That turned out to be important, because Happ then doubled again, which would have given the Cubs the lead. It was the Cubs’ seventh extra-base hit of the game. More on that from John:

The Cubs’ seven extra-base hits (four doubles, one triple, two homers) among their nine total hits were their most in a game this season.

They had six (three doubles, three homers) among 18 hits in a 10-inning, 8-7 win at home over the Phillies on April 23, then six (four doubles, triple, homer) among 12 hits in an 8-4 win at home over the Diamondbacks on May 3.

Palencia threw a 1-2-3 ninth but the Cubs also went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning. On to extras, then.

The A’s scored a run when placed runner Alika Williams scored on a single by Nick Kurtz off Ethan Roberts. Ryan Rolison had to come into the game to face Tyler Soderstrom with two out and a runner on first. He got the out, after a review [VIDEO].

Counsell sent Kevin Alcántara to be the placed runner in the bottom of the inning, running for Miguel Amaya, who’d made the last out in the ninth. Alcántara moved to third on a fly to center, then almost got himself picked off third. Didn’t matter when PCA struck out and Bregman flied to right to end the game.

Ugly, ugly facts:

• The Cubs’ run since their peak this year is now 5-18
• They dropped to 4-3 in extra innings
• They dropped to 9-7 in one-run games

The Cubs also dropped to fourth place in the NL Central, still 6.5 games behind the Brewers, who got two-hit by the Giants Wednesday. Everyone in the division lost Wednesday except the Cardinals, who defeated the Rangers. (And if you think this Cubs game was bad, the Pirates led the Astros 8-3 going to the bottom of the seventh and lost 11-9.)

Still lots of time left. One hundred games, to be exact.

But it would be nice to start winning. Like, right now.

Here are Counsell’s postgame remarks [VIDEO].

The Cubs, now on an eight-game Wrigley losing streak (following that 15-game home win streak), will attempt to salvage the final game of this series against the A’s Thursday evening at Wrigley Field. Shōta Imanaga will start for the Cubs and J.T. Ginn will go for the A’s. Game time is again 7:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.

It may be time to accept that the NL East division title is likely out of the picture for the Phillies. There are still over 100 games left to play in the regular season, but the Phillies’ early swoon and the Braves’ hot start has likely given Atlanta a big enough lead that it’s become unlikely for them to be caught unless something major changes.

But hope for the postseason is not lost, as the Phillies are right in the thick of the wild card race. Again, there’s still a lot of games to be played, but as we begin to enter the summer, it’s time to at least keep one eye on the standings.

At the start of play yesterday, the Phillies were one game out of a wild card spot. They have successfully gotten themselves firmly back into the picture after their horrific start. That’s the good news. The bad news is that they are one of eight teams currently separated by three games in the standings. The others outside of the Phillies are the Padres, Pirates, Diamondbacks, Cardinals, Cubs, Reds, and Nationals.

Not all of those teams will stay this close in the race. Washington has been a surprise thanks to a very good offense, but they seem a good bet to come back to earth at some point due to their poor pitching. The Cardinals and Pirates are other teams playing well above expectations at the moment. The Cubs have been in freefall lately while the Padres have held the top spot despite having pitiful offensive numbers, especially with runners in scoring position.

The Phillies have already secured a tiebreaker with the Padres thanks to their win Tuesday night. They are in position for one over the Pirates thanks to their sweep in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago. On the other hand, the Phillies have lost the tiebreaker badly to the Cubs as they played Chicago in the midst of their poor April and are 1-6 against the Cubs. As for the rest, it could go either way as the Phillies still have at least one more series to play and are either 2-1 or 1-2.

So, who do you think will be the Phillies biggest competition for a wild card spot?