With all these Phils hitting relief pitching so well, you would probably guess that the team overall has impressive numbers in the late innings. And they do.

Here’s what the Phillies did last year in the seventh inning or earlier and after the eighth inning:

  PA AVG OBP SLG OPS
Innings 1 thru
7		 4924 .259 .332 .446 .778
8th inning and
later		 1349 .243 .334 .408 .742
           
Total 6273 .255 .332 .438 .770

Their offensive numbers from the eighth inning on are pretty similar to their numbers in innings one through seven.

Here’s what they look like for this season, not including last night’s game:

  PA AVG OBP SLG OPS
Innings 1 thru
7		 1137 .250 .337 .426 .764
8th inning and
later		 331 .295 .374 .530 .904
           
Total 1468 .260 .346 .450 .795

Not very similar. The Phils have been fantastic in the late innings, and it has helped them win games early in the season. While it’s great they’ve been pounding the ball late, the problem is that at the end of the season their OPS after the seventh inning is going to be a lot closer to .764 than it is to .904. There’s a good chance the whole team won’t slug .530 after the seventh inning all season long. So let’s hope the Phils have a solution to their starting pitching woes, because while all the late lumber is pretty fun to watch it’s not exactly an ideal formula for long-term success.