Phillies Spend Day Off In First Place…
Time to take a deep breath. The Phillies used the beginning of the week to climb into first place in the NL East.
By the end of the night, they could be tied with the Braves, who open a four-game set with the Cardinals. The Phils enjoy a much-needed day off before heading to Citi Field to face the Mets.
For much of the 5-2 home stand, the offense was rolling. That includes putting up a 10 spot in the finale of the Marlins series. And Ryan Howard is starting to find his typical September form. The star first baseman is batting .324 with four homers and 10 RBI in nine games so far this month.
He’ll need to keep that up if shortstop Jimmy Rollins misses any significant time with a hamstring injury suffered Wednesday night. Rollins’ numbers this season aren’t pretty, but he is hitting .281 in September, up from .236 in August. And the importance his ability to score runs for Charlie Manuel’s bunch is hard to even quantify.
And as the offense has rolled, the pitching has followed suit. Cole Hamels has a 25-inning scoreless streak going into his next start, and Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt are picking up victories despite some less-than-perfect performances.
As of now, it has added up to a half-game lead in the division race. Let the Thursday night scoreboard-watching begin.
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