Phils Winning Early-- For Next Year

$21.5 million man wins 1st game at home

As if epitomizing the phrase 'Too Little, Too Late' the Phillies won 3-straight at home vs. Washington, sweeping their weekend series with the MLB-best Nationals.

The Phils have now won 7-out-of-9, 10 out-of-15 and are 24-17 in the 2nd-half.

Heck, Cliff Lee (3-7) even won his 1st home game of the season Sunday!

Hard-luck Lee has shown master control in his past 10 games with 67 strikeouts to only 6 walks (his ratio is #1 in MLB this year), while posting an ERA just above 3 since June.  Lee seeks to become the only human being in the world making $21.5 million this year simultaneously deserving of a great big pity-party.

Meanwhile, 'Doc' Halladay is 4-1 with a 2.75 ERA, 29 S.O. and 4 BB in August.

"Thank you for your strikeout contribution."

Kyle Kendrick-- of all people-- went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA out of the bullpen in July, then 3-1 with a 3.10 ERA and consecutive shutouts (13 S.O. to 1 BB in that stretch) as a starter in August.

Kendrick is so happy with his pitches of late, that he has taken to hugging opposing batters, just for striking out against him [see photo., left].

'12 All-Star Cole Hamels is 3-1 with a 1.86 ERA in August.

In other words, if the season had started in August, the 15-10 Phils would be in 2nd place, 1 game behind the 16-9 Nationals.

Instead, the 61-67 Phillies are 10 GB of the Wild Card with 34 Games remaining.  The silver lining is that they finally appear to be laying the foundation for a successful 2013.

However, the NL is not the cakewalk it once was.  Can these aging Phillies compete against the superstar-studded L.A. "Yankees West" Dodgers for the NL title in '13?  There will also be Young Guns Washington, a Veteran St. Louis club, Dogfightin' S.F. and hard-hitting Cincinnati to contend with.

Hunter Pence is hitting .214 with 29 S.O. and 6 BB in his 1st month as a Giants player, making the Phillies look good for trading him and freeing up salary to spend in free agency on a more complete outfielder.  However, Pence still leads the '12 Phils in 5 of the 6 top offensive categories with a .271 Ave., 17 HR, 59 RBI, .336 OBP & .784 OPS, all team-leading a month after his departure.

Ryan Howard returned July 6th and is hitting .245 with 8 HR and 25 RBI.

Chase Utley came back June 27th and is hitting .249 with 8 HR and 25 RBI, nearly identical numbers to Howard's.

The big difference between them is the quality of their at-bats.  Howard has  61 S.O. and 17 BB, while Utley has 27 S.O. and 25 BB.

Hamels' son: cute, but can he play RF?

Next up for the Phils, an NL East rival visits Philly:

METS (59-69, 4th place) vs. PHILLIES (61-67, 3rd place)

Tuesday: RHP Chris Young (3-7, 4.33) vs. RHP Vance Worley (6-9, 4.06), 7:05 p.m. ET

Tale-of-the-tape: Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard are a combined 4-for-29 (.138) with 8 strikeouts in their careers vs. Mets pitcher Chris Young.

Wednesday: RHP Matt Harvey (2-3, 2.75) vs. LHP Cole Hamels (14-6, 2.99), 7:05 p.m. ET 

Tale-of-the-tape: Hamels (14-6, 2.99 ERA) is still motivated this year, pitching for his 1st CY Young, but faces stiff competition, including the Mets' R.A. Dickey (16-4, 2.76 ERA), Cincinnati's Johnny Cueto (16-6, 2.47 ERA) and  Washington's Stephen Strasburg (15-5, 2.85 ERA).

Kendrick has proven he can pitch in the rain, but not against the Mets.

Thursday: LHP Jon Niese (10-7, 3.51) vs. RHP Kyle Kendrick (7-9, 4.12), 1:05 p.m. ET 

Tale-of-the-tape: Niese is 2-0 with a 2.55 ERA in 4 games vs. the Phillies this year.  The Phillies are hitting just .161 against him.  Kendrick, meanwhile, is 0-1 with a 19.29 ERA vs. the Mets in 2 1/3 innings in '12 with 4 BB and 0 S.O.  The Mets are hitting .455 against him.

Bottom line: This is a battle between 2 teams that have a long, cold Fall awaiting them in a few weeks, while they assess the value of their players and their off-season needs between now and then.