The first edition of Philly Buster is here, a Philadelphia Phillies blog in the Rant Sports network.
Good timing in that the Phils have set the headlines on fire in the baseball world the past two weeks by being shut out in a three-game series by the Mets before Roy Halladay tossed his first career perfect game. And then of course, there’s the three-game sweep at the hands of the Atlanta Braves who have catapulted past the Phillies into first place in the NL East.
However, the Phils are in the midst of their worst and most frustrating stretch in probably the past two and a half seasons. Losers of nine of their last 13 games, the defending NL champs are looking more like the Cubs than a perennial World Series squad. They’ve fallen so far from grace that the Braves, who were 3.5 games behind Charlie Manuel’s unit now hold a two-game advantage in the East.
So, is there any positive in this?
Well, had I written this post two days ago, they would have just been 2-9 in their last 11 games, but the Phillies have managed to squeak by the Padres Friday and Saturday to salvage their record in the past two weeks. And though the Padres don’t look like anything special on paper, they have been playing great together as a team (think 2007 Rockies) and are currently tied for first in the NL West. So, even though the Phillies couldn’t even pull out a win agains the Braves, the first two games against the Padres are sunshine in an otherwise two weeks’ worth of a torrential downpour.
Phillies fans: don’t fret just yet. It’s a long, long season and we’re just over a third of the way through it, meaning there’s 120 games left. Don’t let a bad two-week stretch, even one this disheartening, fool you into getting too discouraged. Rest assured, the Phillies will get out of this.
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