Phillies, Fighting To Stay In The Race

Right now, the Phillies are fighting just to stay in the race. They are not swinging the bats too good, and when they have an opportunity to pick up a game on the Braves, they lose. After my last posting, the Phillies welcomed the San Francisco Giants to town in a crucial 3 game series. The Phils took care of business in that series by winning 2 out of 3. Oswalt and Blanton got wins in the first 2 games, and the offense supported them with a ton of runs. In the third game of the Giants series, Cole Hamels had an OK outing but the Phils couldn't generate enough runs and they lost the final game of the series. The Phils next welcomed the pesky Washington Nationals to town. It always seems that at the end of the year when the Phillies really need wins the Nationals are always so pesky and play them really hard. This year the Phils took 2 out of 3 from the Nats and got outstanding pitching performances from Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt. Although the Phils didn't score too many runs, it was enough to take 2 out of 3. Then the Astros came to town and with everyone back fully healthy, you would expect the Phillies to come out swinging. On Monday, after a great game by Joe Blanton, the Phils tried to cling to a 2-1 lead and eventually lost that lead late in the game and eventually lost the game. And on Tuesday night after yet another terrific outing by Cole Hamels, the Phils failed to score runs and eventually lost in 16 innings. They lost on a night that the Braves lost once again. Right now is not the time to push the panic button by any means. Right now the Phils are tied with the Giants for a tie in the wild card and are just 2.5 games behind the Braves in the division. The Phils are in good shape as we head into September. But if they don't start picking up games on the Braves or putting distance in the wild card they could find themselves on the outside looking in come October. Like I said it's not time to push the panic button, but the Phils need to start swinging the bats and scoring some runs. Tonight we got Roy Halladay pitching who will get the Phillies back on track.