Breaking ball and a call. Strike three. Third strike out for Zach. He's going to just watch it go. A grand slam for Bryson Stott.

And there's a high fly ball. Deep right field. Hopper watches it fly.

From W.HYY and Billy Penn, this is your Friday edition of Hitting Season, a Philadelphia Phillies podcast that frankly doesn't deserve such excitable tones throughout its intro.

I'm Justin Klu. I write for baseball prospectus.

On the last episode of Hidden Season, you heard from some very

rational, reasonable people, John Stolness and Liz Rocher, a couple of true professionals

who had to pick up the pieces after the Phillies were eliminated from the National League

Division Series and the Major League Baseball playoffs by their dreaded rival, the New York Mets.

A emotional test, I would say, for the Phillies fan base in its entirety.

You can lose to a lot of teams in the playoffs.

You can get steamrolled by an absolute powerhouse.

You can get bopped out by a scrappy underdog.

You can go toe to toe with a team with whom you're pretty evenly matched

and just not get the luck you need.

Or you can get bonked on the head by your top division rival,

having its quirkiest, wimziest season ever on its way to what feels like a

World Series trophy, their fans think they're just going to be handed out of cuteness.

This was one of the worst ways to go out of the playoffs.

I would say out of these three playoff runs the Phillies have had the past three

years, you can really

look at it as a trilogy of sorts with different narratives and play. And this is why I wanted to

record something today. I wanted to get my own thoughts out there that I didn't get the chance

...