The Phillies are up to their old tricks. 3 home runs in 1 inning, a 9-run 7th. Teeing off at Coors field. Batting around with key hits from Howard and Utley. Scoring in double digits. The Phils we came to know and love as NL leaders in 2008 and 2009. They're baa-aack...They staged a comeback from down 4 at the end of 6 innings to win a wild one in Colorado, 12-11 Thursday night. A 6-1 road trip has brought them a game closer to the steadfast Braves, who refuse to yield to fate and succumb to the Phils' rightful place atop the division. The Phils seek their 4th-straight division title. The next 30 days will bring 6 head-to-head games between the NL East rivals. The Phillies will host the Braves on Sept. 20-22, while the Braves will host the Phils to end the season: Oct. 1-3.
During their current arduous stretch of 23 days wherein the Phillies will complete 24 games, there was laughter and relief in the clubhouse Wednesday.
After a week in Southern California, where the cool summer nights refresh, the Phillies seemed realigned.
Chase Utley, born and raised in Southern California, a graduate of Long Beach Poly High and UCLA, had just hit 3 doubles in 1 game during a summer where he'd broken a finger and seemed uncharacteristically struggling for his stroke. Utley took it a step further Thursday, matching a career high with 6 RBI in a game, tallying 5 in 1 inning, including a grand slam HR.
Cole Hamels, a San Diego native, had bedazzled his home town by whipping the Padres Sunday,
allowing no runs or walks in 8 innings. Hamels S.O. 48, while walking just 4 in August.The Phils' once 7-game mountain to 1st place has officially been transformed into a 2-game molehill. Their place atop the division appears to be merely a matter of time. In a way, you almost get the feeling the victory would be sweeter this time around. Maybe its the 17 members of the team that have visited the DL that would mark this feat particularly phantastic. Perhaps it's the team's remarkable lack of consistency or their incomprehensibly inconsistent hitting that would define it an amazing accomplishment.
Regardless, Dodgers analysts and sportscasters were flooding the airwaves this week announcing the Phils the NL team to beat, once again. "They have 3 aces!" they marveled on the post-game show Wednesday. "That's not a postseason rotation anyone wants to face."
Suddenly, it's a convincing argument. Cole Hamels appears back to 2008 form, Roy Oswalt has resumed his perennial Sept.-Oct. greatness (he's 4-0 in his postseason career and now 4-1 with a 1.89 ERA as a Phillie) and Roy Halladay leads all NL CY Young candidates (2nd in the league in wins, ERA and S.O.).
Ryan Howard, who hadn't homered since July 27th has now hit 2 in 3 days.All of the sudden, Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge are posting 8th and 9th inning zeros like it was 2008. Madson, who entered August with a 5.12 ERA, has allowed earned runs in exactly 1 of his last 21 innings pitched. He S.O. 27 in Aug., while walking 3. Lidge, meanwhile, has recorded 9 of his 10 save opportunities since July and has yielded only 1 earned run in that time.
The Phillies have definitely caught collective fire. the only question that remains is the one that has hung over this team like a cloud since April: Can they stay healthy, keep their head in the game and build consistency into momentum? This road trip was a resounding "Yes," but can they keep the train running all the way to the postseason gate?
Wednesday night in L.A., Domonic Brown showed his Rookie stripes, when he mistook his ground rule double for a foul ball in the 9th-inning. He rounded 1st and ran to 2nd, glimpsing the ball in the left field stands foul territory, where it wound up after striking the field fair. Brown started trotting back to the batter's box, then realized his mistake and suddenly sprinted back to 2nd. It was extremely comical and Ryan Howard laughed so hard we could see his towering frame convulsing from our seats behind the Phillies' dugout. Jayson Werth came up the steps to join Howard and pretty soon a whole crowd of Phillies appeared at the top step of the dugout to see the top prospect's hilarious blunder.
It was a funny moment, but also a telling one. A few weeks ago, the Phils were 7-games-out in an apparent free fall. Nobody was laughing. They fired their hitting coach (perhaps scapegoating him), and former starter Cliff Lee's successes shadowed their failures. The Phillies team on the verge of yet another series win against the Dodgers Wednesday had a completely different aura. They were loose, enjoying the game, feeling good about themselves, about winning. The swagger that took them to the World Series in '08 and '09 was palpably back.
