It has been almost a month since my last blog post and a lot has happened in that time. At the time of my last blog post, the Phils were flying high in first place with a comfortable 5 game lead. The weekend after that post they went to Milwaukee and swept the Brewers but when they came home, thats when the problems really began to start. Let's recap and go through series by series and see where the Phils began to struggle and what they can do to become a first place ball club once again.
The Phils returned home from their sweep against the Brewers for a nice homestand which included a 2 game series vs the Pirates, a 2 game series vs the Cubs and a 3 game affair against the Red Sox. The Phils started their homestand in a big way by beating the lowly Pirates by a score of 12-2. They then lost the next game 2-1 and had to settle for a split. Next the Cubs came into town and they split them also. I know that you may be thinking what is so bad about splits? The problem is that you are at home, the teams they split with stink, and when you think about it, apart from the 12-2 bashing they werent hitting the ball that good, and that is not a good sign especially when you are facing lower caliber teams. Next the Red Sox rolled into town and the Phillies started that series off with a win by getting a strong outing from Hamels. The Red Sox took the next 2 games and the series by winning on Saturday 5-0 and on Sunday 8-3 in Roy Halladay's worst outing of the year. Besides the win on Friday night, the Phillies did not play well at all. They got shutout on Saturday and got absolutely destroyed on Sunday. The week to come would not be much better.
After going 3-4 in their homestand, the Phillies traveled to New York to take on the Mets. I really don't want to elaborate too much on this series. In a nutshell, the Phillies got swept, and got shutout in every game. I think it's best to not talk about the series so let's move on to the next series where the Phillies took on the Marlins.
The Phillies finally scored a run on Friday night and ended a horrific streak of shutout innings. After the dismal series in New York, it seemed that the Phillies would never score another run or win another game ever again. Nevertheless, the Phils were able to win a tough game by a fianl of 3-2 and in doing so snapped a 5 game winning streak. On Saturday night Roy Halladay was perfect, literally. Roy Halladay pitched a perfect game, 27 up and 27 down. Luckily for Roy, the Phils were able to muster a run and secure a lead for him. I personally did not get to see the game, but I can assume that he was lights out seeing as nobody got a hit or walk or run off of him. Even though it was a night of celebration and happiness, real Phillies fans were still worried because the Phils were only able to produce one run, an unearned run at that. On Sunday the Phils lost 1-0 and left Florida to take on the Braves next.
The Phillies got swept in Atlanta. The only silver lining in the series was the fact that you could see that the offense was slowly but surely beginning to come out of the slump. The Phils offense scored only 7 runs in the series but sooner or later the Phils had to come back to life. The Phillies ended their disastrous road trip with a record of 2-7. They got swept by the Mets, took 2 out of 3 from the Fish, and got swept by the Braves. The only positive that could be taken was that even after playing their absolute worst baseball of the season, the Phils were only 2.5 games out of first place behind the Braves. The Phillies stumbled home to take on the Padres next.
On Friday night, the Phils got a solid outing from Roy Halladay and won by a final of 3-2. The win snapped a 4 game losing streak and offered a little hope to the fans that maybe the drought was over. Saturday was also another impressive win as Jamie Moyer pitched his second complete game of the season and helped the Phillies win 6-2. The Phillies finally got some offensive production from Shane Victorino, Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth. The Phils were not able to win the 4 game series and dropped the final 2 games of the series by finals of 6-5 and 3-1. The Phils took on the Marlins last night and won a high scoring affair by a final of 10-8 which brings us to the present date. Overall since May 18 (the date of my last post) the Phils went 6-13. That time span saw 2 losing streaks, a catastrophic offensive drought and a perfect game. At present date, the Phils are only 2 games out of first behind the Braves so even though they played like crap during that span, they still found a way to win ball games. Even when they were playing their worst baseball they were still able to battle through and pick up tough wins, and that is what the truly great teams do. Even when they can't hit the ball to save their life they battle, and keep battling and try to find ways to come out of the slump on the top. So hopefully the drought is over. Hopefully the Phillies worst baseball is behind them, and hopefully they can now focus on being an elite baseball team once again.
And hopefully JW gets his swing back!!!
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