Saturday, July 13, 2013

Sitting on the Fence


It’s a weird time to be a Phillies fan right now. It feels like every day is Doom’s Day and we’re not even at the All-Star Break. The fan base has been sitting on top of a fence leaning a different way each morning based on what the result was from the game the night before. If the Phils win, there is hope that maybe the Phillies can hit a bit, maybe their adolescent bullpen isn’t so terrible, maybe Charlie Manuel and Ruben Amaro do know what they are doing. But if the Phillies lose it’s cataclysmic. They can’t hit, or don’t even seem to know how. Their bullpen will almost certainly do them in, and Manuel and Amaro are bumbling blockheads.

Obviously, the day-to-day outcome of each Phillies game will not technically be indicative of how the rest of the season will go. That has not stopped most fans from jumping on and off the bandwagon about 10 times more than usual.

Just over a month ago the Phillies got up over .500 for the first time and it felt like they should be poised to make a run for the first place Braves. They were up 4-0 in a game in Milwaukee with Cliff Lee on the mound and wound up losing that game, and the next 4 that followed. Since then it’s been an arduous climb back to the .500 mark. Of course, the .500 mark doesn’t mean much of anything, but I have sort of looked at is as the possible jumping off point they need to be at to make a second half run.

Since losing 3 of 4 to the Dodgers in LA during the last week of June the Phillies have played their best stretch of baseball arguably since the 2011 season. They have won 3 straight series over teams with better records including 2 of 3 from the Pirates and Braves and 3 of 4 from the Nats. They enter the last series before the All-Star Break against the hapless Chicago White Sox at 46-47. They have the chance to reset for the second half of the season on a high note as well as  give Ruben Amaro more of a reason to buy than to sell in the coming weeks.

With the rain out last night the Phillies have the opportunity to win 3 games over the course of a 24 hour period. They need to prove their mettle and at the very minimum take 2 of 3 from a White Sox team that has clearly fallen on hard times while residing in the cellar of the AL Central at 36-53. If they can win one game in the double-header today with Jonathan Pettibone and John Lannan on the mound, Cole Hamels will get his shot to put the Phillies at .500 while the fans can take a 4 day respite from worrying about whether or not the Phillies can win that day.

If they lose the series that Doom’s Day Clock inches closer and closer the end of it all.


Stay tuned for an in depth midseason report coming later this week on the Phillies first half.

4 comments:

  1. Go Phillies!!! You give me hope Alex.

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  2. Having just watched most of the recent series on a Washington DC network, I was amused to see that the announcers talked about their disappointment in the Nat's fulfillment of their promise, the same we we do in Philly. Hope always seems to spring eternal in baseball and when we lose it cuts to the quick. Good to know we are not alone in that. As for me, I'll continue to hope, but temper that with the knowledge that although the American past time, it is just a game.

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  3. Forgot to say, keep the faith, Alex with a wise eye.

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  4. I found more Nats players making dumb baseball plays during the 4 game series than the Phils players. That is amazing considering Delmon Young and Jimmy, 90%, Rollins play for the Phils.
    White Washing The Sox would bring alot of those fence sitters back into the fold.
    Bo Knows.

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