Right about this time the past few seasons, the Fightins’ seem to come out of their June/July wheel spin and just start beating teams up.
Ryan Howard usually starts to drill the ball around this time and usually carries the team through August, just as he’s been doing recently. He just seems to flip a switch right when the stretch run starts and plays like the MVP that he is.
Jayson Werth has been playing out of his mind the past few weeks, already establishing career highs in HR and RBI with over a month left in the season.
While the offense has been incredible the past few weeks, it is the pitching that has overshadowed the offensive outburst the past few days.
First it was Pedro Martinez and Jamie Moyer combining to pitch a great game through a rain delay. As Pedro said, when you throw two old goats out there, who knows what can happen. On that day, they dominated. Cliff Lee followed that up with a complete game, his 2nd as a Phillies, to improve to 4-0 in the National League. Not to be forgotten, Joe Blanton pitched 8 strong innings to finish off the sweep of the Diamondbacks.
The Phillies’ pitchers joined in the offensive fun as well though. Each of the past three games, a Phillies’ pitcher has had a multi-hit game. Lee has been very good at the plate since coming over from Cleveland, so I guess it’s wearing off on the other pitchers.
With September looming, the Phillies are obviously looking towards the postseason. However, they can’t overlook the rest of the regular season. While the Mets’ series this weekend isn’t as important as it has been in the past, it’s still a divisional series and the Phillies need to put this division away. With a 6.5 game lead as of today, they’re on their way.
I never thought I’d say it, but the pitcher that has worried me the most has been Cole Hamels. He needs a strong showing against the Mets. The rest of the staff has been overshadowing him as of late. A win over the Mets would go a long ways toward helping him regain the form he had last September/October. Getting that form back would also improve the pitching staff, but I don’t think there’s much room to grow right now.
As long as the Phillies continue their hot streak, they’re going to run right through the month of September and be ready to go come October. It’s going to be a fun six weeks.
