First Place Phillies

Written by Mike Mariano | 08 September 2010

For the first time since May 30th the Phillies sit in the drivers seat.  It's been a long road, but yesterday the team beat the Marlins on an Atlanta off day and slipped into first place in the NL East.

The offense overcame one of the worst slumps in recent memory to regain a devastating nightly attack.  Rollins, Utley, Howard, are all healthy and hitting the playoff stride we're used to.  Polanco has been everything and more as a free agent acquisition. Ibanez rediscovered his hitting stroke after early struggles and quietly Jayson Werth is having the best offensive season out of all of them.

The pitching rides along as an underrated component of the Phillies second half run.  The Roys get the headlines and they've been great, but Cole Hamels has been the guy we've always wanted him to be.  His 9-10 record does an injustice to a guy who is consistently pitching deep into games and making quality start after quality start.  The bullpen mess has been cleaned up and even Brad Lidge is showing consistency out of the pen.

The Phillies are a long way from the playoffs but where they are now on the roll they're on now, things are as bright as they've been all season.  The Phillies showed last year that all they need to do is get to the playoffs and they'll be dangerous.  With their offense and the big 3 starters, another deep playoff run looks good right about now.