Summary judgments: Trea Turner’s curtain call, K’Von Wallace’s body, Rashaad Penny’s chances, and more

I’ll never forget the first game I covered at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

It was Friday the 13th, and Todd Wellemeyer was throwing meatballs. His night started with back-to-back-to-back home runs by Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Pat Burrell in the first inning. It ended with four straight batters reaching base in the fourth, including a ground-rule double by opposing starter Kyle Kendrick. With the Cardinals down 6-1 and Wellemeyer having allowed 11 baserunners against 10 outs, Tony La Russa had seen enough.

What struck me most was the crowd’s reaction as Wellemeyer trudged off the mound. There weren’t any boos. In fact, as Wellemeyer arrived back at the home dugout, he did so to a polite round of applause.

“What’s wrong with these people?” I said to whoever was sitting next to me.

Flash forward to this past Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park, when a stadium full of the toughest graders in sports somehow managed to summon the better angels of their nature after each of Trea Turner’s first two outs of the night. The cheers that greeted the struggling superstar after his disastrous 3-for-29 road trip were a combination of admirable and uncomfortable. Admirable in their intent. Uncomfortable in their desperation. Turner’s slump-busting home run in the sixth inning was one of the more memorable regular-season moments in recent Phillies history. Maybe kindness wins, as Nick Castellanos’ mom tweeted out. Or maybe the baseball gods just felt super awkward.

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It’s getting late early for Wallace. The 26-year-old safety spent most of his first three NFL seasons watching the Eagles acquire other players they’d rather have at the position. Anthony Harris, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Reed Blankenship all arrived after Wallace and ended up with more snaps in the defensive backfield. That list could grow by another couple of names this summer. After losing Gardner-Johnson and Marcus Epps to free agency, the Eagles signed veteran Terrell Edmunds and drafted Illinois star Sydney Brown with the No. 66 overall pick. Along with the presence of Blankenship, an undrafted rookie who saw extensive action during the second half of 2022 and got a snap in the Super Bowl, Wallace once again looks to be on the dark side of the depth chart.

It’s notable, then, that Wallace arrived at training camp cutting a much more impressive figure than years past. Gone is the baby fat that bloated his 5-foot-11, 205-pound frame and left him looking more linebacker than safety. He is much sleeker now, the product of an offseason he spent working on both mind and body while training at his alma mater, Clemson.

“Just trying to lower my body fat percent — I’m still the same weight, but I look thinner in my face, thinner in my body,” Wallace said. “Just trying to prepare myself for a 21-week season. Just trying to go all the way with it. ... A lot of thinking, a lot of mental battles I had to go through this offseason to make sure I’m ready for this year. And I’m ready, man. I’m ready for whatever they throw my way.”

Acceleration and closing speed have always been the biggest reasons to doubt that Wallace would live up to the Brian Dawkins comparisons that began when the Eagles drafted him out of Dawkins’ alma mater in the fourth round in 2020. He’ll be a player to focus on once the preseason lights go on.

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Penny’s upside is undeniable. Since 2018, he ranks 17th among NFL running backs in runs of 15-plus yards and 10th in runs of 20-plus yards. He’s rushed for 125-plus yards in a game six times, the same number as Christian McCaffery. His 5.7 yards-per-carry average is the highest among active running backs with at least 300 career attempts.

That said, the list of players who signed for more money than Penny on this year’s free-agent market includes names like Samaje Perine, Jeff Wilson, Justice Hill, and Travis Homer. It also includes Scott, whose $1.98 million cap number and $1.080 million guarantee were both higher than the $600,000 guaranteed and $1.23 million cap number that the Eagles invested in Penny.

Point is, people seem to be baking an awful lot of assumptions into their presumptive Week 1 depth charts. Markets aren’t perfect in their predictions, but it’s safe to say that no team — including the Eagles — viewed Penny as a good bet to be a lead back this season. Right now, I think the safest assumption is that 2023 will look a lot like 2021, when the Eagles had four backs finish the season with 60-plus carries. Here’s a fun fact: Over the last two years, Scott and Kenny Gainwell have combined for 12 games of 12-plus carries. That’s only three fewer than Penny and D’Andre Swift, who have combined for 15 games of 12-plus carries. It’s going to be really interesting to see what Nick Sirianni has in mind for his running back rotation. Don’t sleep on the incumbents.

It was a sinker that started out of the zone and then darted across the outer third of the plate at 99 mph. Freddy Fermin swung at it and missed for a crucial second out with runners on first and second and the Phillies leading the Royals 8-6 in the eighth inning.

Granted, the two men on base were there on Domínguez’s account. But he recovered nicely from the couple of walks he issued, nailing down his third straight scoreless inning in a high-leverage situation.

The Phillies are doing the right thing in trying to get Domínguez right. He hasn’t pitched on back-to-back days since returning from the injured list on July 26. Hopefully they have the resolve to keep that up. With José Alvarado out of commission and Craig Kimbrel showing some signs of fraying, Domínguez could be a massive wild card for the Phillies in the postseason. That starts with the fastball, which has been far less lethal this season than it was throughout his dominant 2022. They need it jumping out of his hand the way it has been in his last couple of outings. Keep him healthy. Get him confident. Those are the objectives.