In my last post I wondered if the Phillies’ dormant offense was finally starting to get back on track, and their play since has answered that emphatically. The offense is starting to do what they do best again: mash teams to death. Chase Utley has been fantastic (.318 batting average, 7 RBIs in the last 6 games), ever since a report last week that he was playing injured. Apparently, Chase doesn’t like it when people suggest that he is hurt, because he’s been playing like a man possessed ever since then. Jayson Werth has also been hot in the past week, batting .333 with 2 homers and 5 RBIs in his last 6 games.
Those 2 guys were a big part of the reason that the Phillies struggled so mightily to score runs over a stretch of games spanning almost a full month. When two of your best three hitters (Ryan Howard being the other) are slumping, it’s a pretty good bet that your team will find runs hard to come by. Oh, and the Phillies have been playing basically the entire season without another one of their best players, Jimmy Rollins. He wasted no time in reminding everyone just how much his presence was missed, belting a 2 run, walkoff homerun in the bottom of the 9th inning in last night’s game vs the Cleveland Indians and the Phils came from behind to win by a score of 7-6.
Despite a hiccup by the bullpen over the weekend vs with Minnesota Twins, the Phillies seem to be back to playing very good baseball again, something we have definitely been spoiled watching over the past 4 years. In the last 3 days, they have made up 3 games of ground against the Braves, trimming their divisional lead from 5.5 to 2.5 games over that span.
Today the Phillies absolutely hammered the Indians 12-3 to complete the 3 game sweep. They now are about to play a “road” series in Philadelphia against the Toronto Blue Jays because of a scheduling conflict in Toronto. The Blue Jays will bat last, and the DH will be in play, as American League rules will be enforced during this unusual series. It should be interesting to see a DH play in a game in Philadelphia.
The Phillies haven’t played quite as well as we might have expected during the season’s first 70 games, but they have always been a great second half team, and there is absolutely no reason to think that this year will be any different. Right now they look to be priming themselves for a push toward taking that divisional lead back to where it belongs, with Rollins, Werth, and Utley leading the way.
- Murdock
