Kuzul

With just over a week left in the MLB season, I figured it’d be good to look at the possibilities for this postseason’s match-ups.

While certain teams have much work to do in regards of locking their position in the postseason, I thought it would be fun to look into the playoffs as they sit today.

If the postseason started right this instant, the match-ups would look like this:

American League Division Series

Texas Rangers at New York Yankees

Tampa Bay Rays at Minnesota Twins

National League Division Series

Cincinnati Reds at Philadelphia Phillies

Atlanta Braves at San Francisco Giants

The way I calculated these results, were not based on merely opinion, I shuffled season statistics into the following categories.

First I’d look at the series match-up on the season. The latest games being the more influential than the early season games.

I considered the home field advantage records vs. away records.

Next, I considered the teams September record, since it represents how hot they are now, going into the playoffs.

This could indicate a readiness to perform in crunch time.

Also, I consider previous experience, a very overlooked possession. Experience alone sometimes can win a team the ball game.

Lastly, I’ve used some common sense also. Gotta factor that in, because it’s not always what the numbers say. There aren’t necessarily numbers for heart.

With that being said, lets get into the match-ups.

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What more can be said? How much more clear does it have to be made?

The Philadelphia Phillies have made an authoritative, boisterous statement.

Doesn’t matter what the fans of the Philadelphia Phillies think, doesn’t matter what the Atlanta Braves fans think, the Philadelphia Phillies, are indeed, the team to beat in the NL.

If you doubted the Phillies, thank you. You may have been the one to fuel them. If you ever called into question the integrity of this team—there was no reason.

The Phillies have proved they’re the team to beat in the NL with an astonishing 18-3 September, complete with a 10 game winning streak, and a six game lead with nine games to go.

Their ‘magic number’ is down to four, and they trail the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins for the best record in the league by a half game.

Make no mistake, the Phillies right now, are the hottest team in the league and if you have suspicions that they may finish the season with the best record in the MLB for the first time since 1977, you have every reason to.

The Phillies have three games a piece left with the ever-struggling, New York Mets, the lowly Washington Nationals, and the Atlanta Braves. It’s not crazy to think the Phillies will lose, at the most, three more games.

That would mean, they win two out of three in the series, for the rest on the season. I happen to believe they will only lose two; possibly three.

They’ll sweep either the Mets or the Nationals, and possibly lose the last two games of the season.

Meanwhile the Yankees have six out of nine games left with the Boston Red Sox.

My gut has been right all along. And it’s well documented.

When folks were worried, I had faith.

When it came to the Braves, I felt a sweep.

I mentioned a while ago that I felt they would do something they haven’t done since 1977, and that’s finish with the best record in the MLB. It’s right there for the taken.

It would be a major statement for them to do so.

With only nine games left, against two weak teams, and a team they’re clearly superior to, I can still feel it in my bones:

The Philadelphia Phillies will finish this season with the best record in the MLB.

For more writing from Vincent Heck visit: www.vincentheckwriting.com

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The first head-to-head, “for all the marbles” meeting between these two teams, came in 1915 when the surprising, Philadelphia Phillies, jumped from sixth to first in one year to lead the race for the National League Pennant.

That year, Philadelphia produced the NL’s best offense, in-part to career years from outfielder, Gavvy Cravath and first baseman Fred Luderus.

Pete Alexander’s 31-10 record and league-low 1.22 ERA led the league’s best pitching staff, rounded out by 21-game winner Erskine Mayer, Al Demaree, and Eppa Rixey, to a team ERA of 2.17.

The Phillies started that 1915 season 8-0 right out of the gates, taking over first place, a position they would, ultimately, hold for some 100 days that season.

Like the 2010 Philadelphia Phillies, the 1915 Phils lost first place in late May—May 29, to be exact. 

They didn’t regain their lead back until some 41 games later, thanks to a three game sweep of Rogers Hornsby and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Heading into August 13, 1915, the Boston Braves were making a strong campaign for first place in the National League. They trailed the first place Philadelphia Phillies by three games, and had a record of 6-9 against the Phils that season.

The series turned out to be a bust, as the Braves were swept being outscored 19-3.

Despite the hammering from the Phils, that didn’t shut the resilient Braves down, at all.

Playing in a brand-new Braves Field, Boston put on a 26-12 late-season drive leading into another three-game set with the Phillies, but they could only come up with a final record of 83-69—seven games back of the Phillies.

The two series down the stretch proved to be key for the Braves that year, allowing the Phillies win their first head to head race with the Braves.

Monday, September 20, 2010 was a night both fan bases have been looking forward to at one time or another.

The Atlanta Braves took a 7-5 head-to-head record into tonight three games back, looking to begin their run towards the top of the division once again after losing their number one spot, ironically, to the 2010 St. Louis Cardinals.

This game had every bit of that playoff feeling. Towels were waving, fans were screaming, and the stadium lights hung in the foreground of the evening back drop.

With Jair Jurrjens tweaking his knee last Friday during a bullpen session, the Braves called on rookie Brandon Beachy to open this all-important Game 1.

The Braves came out strong swinging their bats in effort to intimidate Cole Hamels.

All of the key batters, for the Braves, got into the mix early, with Jason Heyward getting on base, and Derrick Lee and Brian McCann doubling to help Beachy take the early 1-0 lead.

Cole Hamels, who had dominated the Braves this season, had to fight his way out of a, no-out jam, with runners on first and third, but he fought through the inning only sacrificing one run.

The Phils responded right away in the bottom of the second with a score off of a Carlos Ruiz double to shallow left sending Ryan Howard home.

At that point, it felt like this would be a dog fight.

In the bottom of the fifth inning a key error by rookie Jason Heyward moved Shane Victorino to third which allowed him to eventually come home making the score 2-1 Phillies.

After a few difficulties, Bobby Cox decided to replace his young pitcher with Eric O’Flaherty, but the news didn’t get any better after.

O’Flaherty loaded the bases on two consecutive walks with one out, allowing Raul Ibanez to advance the runners and score Utley on a ground out to short stop—making the score 3-1.

Despite runners being on base for the whole bottom of the inning, the Braves managed to pull through only allowing two runs. Peter Moyland replaced O’Flaherty to Strike out Ruiz.

Hamels started hitting a stride, buzzing through Braves as he had earlier in the season. Through seven innings he had, six K’s, and only allowed one earned run.

In the eighth inning, despite Hamels being in dominant stride, Manuel decided to pinch hit for Hamels, and rely on his guy, Brad Lidge, in the ninth.

Within a matter of minutes, despite the nervous energy in the stadium, Lidge tore a hole through the heart of Atlanta’s batting order, taking the first game in the much anticipated series.

With the win, the Phillies move their winning streak to eight games; 12 wins in the last thirteen games. The Phils now drop their magic number to eight more wins to secure a playoff berth, and they increase their lead in the NL East to four games ahead.

The second game will be held Tomorrow night, when they send their ace Roy Halladay to the mound. Same place same time, as the Phillies chase the same result they got 95 years ago in their first race with the Bravos.

Happy September baseball fans!

For more writing from Vincent Heck visit: www.vincentheckwriting.com

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Charlie Manuel is 66 years old, and has had complications with his health in the past.

Three of his contemporaries have either announced retirement, or will be announcing retirement.

As we know, Bobby Cox, 69, is calling it quits after the conclusion of this season. Joe Torre, 70, has also announced that he is stepping down. There has also been a buzz about Tony LaRussa, 65, looking into walking away from the game as well.

Dennis Deitch, of the Times Staff, asked Charlie if he’s thought about hanging it up soon. His response was:

“If it’s baseball, I don’t think I’ll ever say I’ve had enough of it,” Manuel said. “I have a lot of respect for those guys. They probably feel like they have things they want to do, but when they get out they might want to come right back.”

With Torre being the oldest manager currently in the MLB retiring, and Cox, the second oldest retiring, this would make Manuel MLB’s current oldest manager in the league. He has Cito Gaston, of the Toronto Blue Jays, beat by two months and 13 days.

The current average age of managers in the league now is 55 years old. The youngest being the Seattle Mariners interim manager, Daren Brown, at 43.

There are currently 10 managers who fall into the range of 50-55 years old, five of whom are 53 years old.

Fortunately for Philly fans, if it were up to Manuel, Philadelphia would hold the two oldest managers of all-time.

When asked when he would think about resigning Manuel responded, “I can see myself managing at 85. Pennsylvania’s known for having old coaches and managers.“

When Manuel made that statement he was referencing Joe Paterno of the Penn State Nittany Lions, but, what came to my mind was the oldest MLB manager to ever manage baseball, Connie Mack, who managed the Philadelphia Athletics until he was 87.

Manuel admits that his whole life is baseball. He tells Deitch:

“I don’t go nowhere…I go home and go to the ballpark. I go from the ballpark to the airplane and to a hotel…That’s all I do. I might walk downtown before I go to the ballpark, but I don’t go to bars. If I were younger, I’d go to bars. But that’s all I do. That’s all I want to see.”

So in light of all the manager retirement news, Manuel is here to stay…as long as it’s his choice.

For more writing from Vincent Heck visit www.vincentheckwriting.com

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As the saying goes, “There’s nothing new under the sun.”

Not to say this absolutely, but it’s true. History can tell us a lot about what we are likely to see.

Then again, if history was always right, life would be quite boring. So, every now-and-again, life decides to switch things up.

What we like to do as a human race is become intrigued with what will happen, even attempting to predict the outcome, and we’re usually left in marvel when history takes a new path.

Sports events are our recreational exploration of these natural human tendencies.

This year, the Philadelphia Phillies are on pace to be the ninth team to make it to the championship series after two consecutive, previous appearances since it was instituted in 1969.

They’ve fought off the critics. They’ve fought through injuries.

Now they’re poised to take on history.

If you look at the raw numbers of the past, they reveal some interesting statistics that could possibly explain the reality of the 2010 Philadelphia Phillies.

Only eight times, since the League Championship Series was introduced, has a team made an LCS appearance after two previous appearances. Only twice was it a National League team.

Never has a National League team won three League Championship Series in a row.

The reason I don’t simply say ‘three times in a row’, is because I’m counting years such as the New York Yankees‘ appearances in ’98, ’99, ’00, and  ’99, ’00, and ’01 as separate times — because it’s just about teams who appeared in the previous two League Championship Series. 

With that being said, the Oakland Athletics did it in 1974 and 1990, the Atlanta Braves did it in 1993 and 1997, and the New York Yankees did it in 1978, 2000, and 2001.

I included the Toronto Blue Jays, who had a chance to do it in 1994. Of course, we’ll never know what could have happened due to the lockout that year.

But because they did make two consecutive LCS appearances, they have to be included.

I’ve sorted all the results into statistics. I found that, of the eight previous times a team has made two previous LCS appearances, five of the teams went on to win a third pennant the next year: the Athletics twice, and the Yankees three times.

If you’re completely depending on history to give you the possibility that the Phillies would pull this off, that’d leave you with a 63 percent chance that the Phils would win another pennant this year.

Of those five teams, three went on to win the World Series, which puts the Phillies’ chances at 38 percent that they’ll win it all again like they did in 2008.

The most surprising statistic, however, is this next one.

Of the eight teams who made the LCS after two previous appearances, four finished the subsequent season with the best record in their respective league. The Braves did it twice in ’93 and ’97, the 1978 Yankees did it, and the 1990 Oakland A’s did it as well.

Of that group, only the ’78 Yankees and ’90 A’s advanced to the World Series. Of those two, only the ’78 Yankees went on to win the World Series.

To follow with the same theme, that would mean, if the Philadelphia Phillies finished this season with the best record in the NL, they’d have a 50 percent shot at advancing to the World Series, but only a 25 percent shot of winning the World series.

Fortunately, we have the saying, “History in the making.”

This is why it’s likely that the 2010 Philadelphia Phillies are likely to raise that 50 percent to 60 percent, that 25 percent to 40 percent and all those other numbers up as well.

Keeping on the theme of the past, did anyone think that in 2008, a playoff where the National League favorites where the mighty Chicago Cubs with a season record of 97-64, would be dismantled by the swagger-filled Los Angeles Dodgers?

Who would have thought that the Philadelphia Phillies would come out of the NL that year?

Furthermore, who would have thought they would defeat a young team in the World Series in the Tampa Bay Rays, who handily dominated the AL East. A division which previously was under the monopoly of the Yankees and Red Sox?

Those scenarios, at the time, seemed unlikely.

This year, there are new unlikely scenarios to conquer.

But why should we fans believe that our team can do it again? I’ll give you five reasons.

The Batting

The Phillies are eight-deep in their lineup. From the catalyst J-Roll leading off, to Carlos “Chooch” Ruiz, who is having a very solid season, batting .300 on the year, with a .401 on-base percentage.

Ask any pitcher in the league about the journey from Rollins, to Polanco, to Utley, to Howard, to Werth, to Ibanez, and they’ll tell you it’s no relaxing day by anyone’s standards.

The bottom of the lineup finishes with Victorino and Ruiz, who will absolutely hurt any pitcher, on any given pitch.

The depth of the team, though, isn’t enough to base a whole argument on. Every contender, to some degree, has depth. This brings me to the next reason.

The Pitching

Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels can be, and have been, No. 1 options by themselves. Here they are, on top of tremendous offensive potential, pitching solid games, holding teams to an average of under three runs a game.

The bullpen isn’t great—but not bad either. With Halladay’s work ethic and being able to go to at least the seventh or eighth inning every game, the bullpen should be able to hold it down like they have in the past seasons.

Chad Durbin, J.C. Romero, Jose Contreras, Ryan Madsen, and Brad Lidge should be, even with all of their occasional difficulties, enough to support the All-Star starting lineup.

The Leadership

There is something about when Rollins, Utley, and Howard are in the lineup that gives this team an extra zing.

They seem to feed off of the ultra confidence of Rollins, the silent consistency of Utley, and the powerful, dangerous, intimidation of Ryan Howard.

Now, as the postseason approaches, the whole team is healthy again, and they are looking to wreak havoc in September and October.

Teamwork

Despite injuries to Rollins, Polanco, Utley, Howard, Ibanez, and Victorino, the Phightins have still pulled themselves into playoff contention.

This is because of one thing: a common goal.

This team has a common goal; a common purpose. Which means, even if another, less talented player comes in to fill a void, the system will stay on task.

I know what you’re saying right now—most teams try to develop this.

But the key word is, “Try.”

The Phillies have found a particular common viewpoint to administer to their on-the-field play, which works with a number of roster combinations.

Not to say that you can throw a group of anybodies together and be World Series Champs. The key is, they can patch the hole like duct tape holds the trunk of your car closed.

It won’t look pretty, and it won’t last long, but it’s doing its temporary job.

Of course, you might say, “Well, what other successful team doesn’t have those things? That seems general.”

You might feel obliged to compare the resiliency of the Atlanta Braves. Or the strong pitching of the San Francisco Giants, etc., and you may be right.

But, what separates the Philadelphia Phillies from the others is…

Experience

The Phillies have seen the hard times.

They’ve met the challenges. They’ve been the underdogs.

They’ve heard why they won’t make it, who they won’t beat, who has better pitching.

They’ve heard how long-ball teams can’t win, they’ve heard how small their ball park is, and they’ve been through the disappointments and have tasted success.

There is no better teacher than experience.

No better solution than patience. No better cure to anxiety than poise.

They’ve worked and fought to put themselves in the position they are in now. And you better believe this team isn’t just going down like some fluke team that caught the current and rode a success wave.

It’s a very different success to fight against the current.

Visit www.vincentheckwriting.com for more of Vincent’s work.

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Much can be said about a team that makes things happen amidst a pennant race, and a lot can be said about those who don’t. What can we say about the difference between the Philadelphia Phillies and their competition? Well, there are still 15 games left to be played out.

The Phils, nonetheless, look just the way they are supposed to: defeating a pesky team, in the Florida Marlins for the second night in a row. Meanwhile, 650 miles down I-95 the Atlanta Braves, who have been hanging on to the hopes of grabbing first place to gain the home field advantage in the postseason, lost 6-0 to the MLB‘s version of the Detroit Lions in the heat of a pennant race—at home.

While these games can certainly be negated in the head-to-head matchup, this past Tuesday night could prove to be the turning point in how this race plays out.

The Phillies have now, with this win over the Florida Marlins in Miami, taken a two game lead in the National League East and appear poised to pull away with an old-fashioned pennant race-like victory.

Tuesday night’s victory wasn’t just a victory, it came with very positive signs for Philadelphia including:

• Thirteen of the 22 outs Cole Hamels recorded were strikeouts, the most any Phillies pitcher has had in 2010.
• Brad Lidge saved the one-run victory with a 16-pitch, 1-2-3 ninth inning.
• Hamels’ 1.79 ERA in 12 starts is tops in the league.

And to cap it off, Hamels and Roy Halladay are tied for second in the NL for strikeouts this season.

It’s all setting up to meet the inevitable conclusion, a third straight NL pennant flag hanging up at the bank in 2011.

This would be the first time the Phillies have ended the regular season with the leading record in the NL since 1950, when they finished two games ahead of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The Phillies are demonstrating, without Jimmy Rollins, that their biggest attribute isn’t within the roster. It isn’t within the big numbers either, nor is it within the accolades that accompany those things. Rather, it’s the huge muscle that resides underneath their rib cage.

Definitely something that the Braves possess also, but in the heat of a pennant race, you almost always have to stick with the group who have been through the fire and know how to get there.

It’s the same difference as, if you needed to get to Anchorage, Alaska would you trust a young, talented, geography teacher or a geography teacher who has been there twice in the last two summers?

While, you may trust both, to a degree, you almost always have to take the experience.

The Braves are only a game up on the San Francisco Giants and are better suited, at this point, holding off the Giants until they get the opportunity to go head-to-head against the two-time National League champion, Philadelphia Phillies.

The Phillies move on to play the Washington Nationals in a weekend series at home, while the fading Atlanta Braves head to New York to take on the New York Mets before the two square off in the first of two series that have major playoff implications.

More coverage is to follow tomorrow. We’ll put a finger on the pulse of both teams.

The Braves have a lot of work to do.  My guess is, they better find a defibrillator quick, because losing to the Nats twice, in a situation such as this, is close to flat lining.

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Six days left until the biggest series of the year in the National League.

The Phillies official website reports that the Phillies pitching coach, Rich Dubee, may be looking to deliver a knock out blow next week when facing the Atlanta Braves. Given the recent awakening of the Phillies’ bats, that doesn’t sound like too bad an idea.

The Phillies crushed the Florida Marlins 11-4 on Monday, September 13th to retain their one-game lead in the NL East, while the Braves held up their end, beating the Washington Nationals 4-0.

With just over two weeks left in this season, and six games remaining between the two NL East teams, it’s pretty obvious that the race to first place will all come down to the head-to-head match-up.

The Braves, known to be a resilient team, are going to have much to contend with come these final games down the stretch because, of the six games remaining, it’s quite possible the Phillies will pitch their aces in five of them.

All it would take is for Rich Dubee to realign this weekend’s pitching rotation, and voila!  To make it happen, all Dubee would have to do is switch Roy Oswalt’s and Kyle Kendrick’s starts this weekend.

Oswalt is set to pitch on Saturday, September 18, but if switched to pitch on Friday, September 17th, instead, the trio could line up against those wily Braves on Monday, starting with Cole Hamels. But does Dubee see it the same way?

He commented on the matter, as reported by Todd Zoleki saying:

“As long as [Oswalt] is feeling fine, there’s a real good chance,…I don’t think there’s any downside to pitching Oswalt, Hamels, and Halladay. They are our front three starters. I would think if you have two series with the Braves, you’d want the best guys available, if possible.”

The news comes at no surprise to some, given what’s at stake here. Between the Atlanta Braves, the San Francisco Giants, and the red hot, Colorado Rockies jostling for playoff berths, it seems winning the division will be key—Dubee is not going to be the one to take that chance.

In September the three have put up stellar pitching performances, pitching for a combined 51 innings, going 7-0, and throwing 52 strikeouts, while only giving up, between the three of them, an average of under two runs per game.

The Braves have faced two of the three pitchers this year, in four games. The pitchers have gotten the best of them in three of the four games pitching, between the two of them, 23 innings, giving up seven runs, throwing 20 strikeouts, and only giving up two runs.

For the Phils, the good news is, Roy Halladay has absolutely dominated the Braves the two times he faced them, going the distance in both games.

In the first game, Halladay pitched an .82 ERA, giving up no runs, and striking out seven. His second game interestingly enough were strikingly similar numbers, but with one home run given up.

The good news for the Braves is, they seemed to have less of a struggle with Hamels, scoring six runs on him, including a three-run homer by Troy Glaus in the rain, while splitting a game a piece with him.

Now, Hamels and Halladay add Oswalt to the show and for the first time this season, line up in one series and take on the Atlanta Braves for all of the marbles.

If that doesn’t get you excited as a Braves, or Phillies fan, nothing will.

It most certainly will be must see TV, and yours truly, will be all over that coverage the whole week. Stay tuned.

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It’s been 66 years since the National League has seen a three-time National League champion.

The year was 1944 when the mighty St. Louis Cardinals won their third straight pennant after finishing first in the NL with 105 wins.

Looking to rebound from their loss the previous year to the New York Yankees, the St. Louis Cardinals won their fifth title in the “Streetcar Series,” against their crosstown rivals the St. Louis Browns. Three consecutive NL pennants hasn’t happened since.

Of course, in 1944 the format was much different. The MLB changed to the NLCS in 1967. But that makes it even more shocking of a statistic when you say that since 1969, when the championship series was implemented, no one in the NL has been able to pull off the elusive three-peat.

The Reds came close in 1976 and the Dodgers came close in the subsequent years of 1977 and 1978. The Atlanta Braves came extremely close, winning four out of five pennants consecutively—not including 1994’s lockout season—splitting two and two in ’91 and ’92, then again in ’95 and ’96.

This year, a similar event has a chance of coming to fruition. The Philadelphia Phillies have a chance to be the first NL team in over 60 years to win three consecutive pennants. This season has showed Philadelphia why it’s been such a difficult feat to pull off.

Plagued by injuries, the Phillies came into this month on a steady mission: continue their quest to tie up loose ends from 2009’s loss to the New York Yankees and make history as the first team to win three pennants in the championship series format. 

Unlike the St. Louis Cardinals of 1944, however, this road was not easy for the Phils. Change of batting order, new acquisitions, battling injuries, and fighting against hitting slumps, the Phillies still find themselves in the same place the Cardinals were around this time 1944—first place in the NL. Granted, the Cardinals had a 14 game lead on the Pittsburgh Pirates; it is, nonetheless, first place.

With their pursuers, the Atlanta Braves, only a game behind them, the Phillies have a long road ahead of them. Anxiously, we await the six games left against that resilient bunch, to find out if our Phightins can make this happen.

While the Phillies do show many similarities with that historical team of 1944, if the Phillies are able to pull off history, they will have done it their way—Phightin’,

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How do the Phillies follow up their reclaiming of first place in the NL East? With a game that was almost too much fun to watch. The first inning brought two quick scores by the Phillies, as the Phils jumped out to a 2-0 lead.

The party came to a halt however, when Jimmy Rollins left the game with a, then, undisclosed injury in the third inning. The Phillies are now calling it “tightness in the hamstring.”

Rollins didn’t look quite right running to second base on his two-out double in the third. His approach to second base came with a peculiar arrival, as he chooses not to slide, despite the ball arriving in a close play.

Rollins looked upset as he exited the game. Jimmy Rollins is the anchor to this team, and they seem to play better with him in the lineup.

Rollins missed 59 games this season, and the Phillies seemed to drag along during that period. Since then, into September, the Phillies have been rolling. They have found themselves in first place, winning eight of their last ten games.

Tonight was a beautiful follow up to the commandeering of first place. Cole Hamels didn’t allow a single run in seven innings of work, seemingly, furthering the presence of Philadelphia’s ‘big three’ on the National League. 

Matt Gelb, of the Philly.com, reports on the luck the Phillies are commonly known to live on:

“Luck, as in Jimmy Rollins just keeping a line drive fair inside the third-base line in the third inning Wednesday. Luck, as in the ball bouncing off the fencing of the stands that jut out, meaning Marlins leftfielder Logan Morrison could reach the ball quicker. Luck, as in Rollins looking up and seeing he had to bust it just a little harder.”

Gelb also reported on the hands down skill that the high powered offense is know for also.

“Ryan Howard drove in six runs – one short of his career high – including three on an opposite-field blast in the fourth that left little doubt in the game’s result. The team’s newest lead-off hitter, Shane Victorino, was on base three times and scored each time. Chase Utley added two more RBIs to his torrid September.”

But the perfect night comes with the anxiety of losing the team catalyst in the thick of a pennant race.

The bullpen gave up six runs in the eighth inning, but did enough to hold up the eventual win. The Phillies came away with the 10-6 victory over the Florida Marlins.

The Braves held up their end, winning 9-3 over the Pittsburgh Pirates, keeping the Phillies lead at .5 games ahead of those pesky Braves.

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We all knew it would come. Now it’s that time.

Like a man on death row, you just sit and wait—you wait on your sentence and hope, something, somehow, could change your fate.

Then the inevitable day comes, and all of a sudden…you’ve lost first place.

Those Phightin’s, I don’t know how they do it, but, they live up to that name of theirs year after year.

If you haven’t been keeping up, or you fell asleep within the game last night, I’m here to tell you, those Phils have done it again. They are back in first place and they are ready to finish the last two and a half weeks off of this season in style—as they have in the last five years, or so.

With a very important series coming up in under two weeks, the Phils wasted no more time taking over the top spot, beating the Florida Marlins last night 8-7 after a scary crash by the Phillies bullpen. The bats, however, were able to come alive, enough, to bail Joe Blanton out.

The pitching shouldn’t be a problem down the stretch, being that the Phils have made due without such a dynamic force before.

Even if Joe Blanton and Kyle Kendrick were to bomb every game in the playoffs, it will still be hard to beat three aces in a seven game series—and that’s without pitching some on short rest.

Amidst what seemed to be a flop by the Phillies in July and August, they have once more, stepped up to the challenge, leaving some who unnecessarily doubted them, to look back on their foolishness.

But the season is not over by any means. The Braves are still right there.

Speaking of which, we can understand the excitement of Braves fans, and the like, but, it’s clear that everyone knows, the Phils are a marathon team, who finishes strong down the stretch.

Despite ‘great debates’ and the sort, the Phils and their fans know all along, there is no need to panic.

In a poll conducted by Phillies Featured Columnist, Vincent Heck, and Braves Featured Columnist, Evan Walker, a few days ago, we asked our fans who would win the NL East.

With the Phillies behind the Braves one game, the public came to an decisive conclusion–after 2,000 readers, 520 people voted, and 80% thought that the Phils would come out on top.

Quick math—that’s 416 voters for the Phils.

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind what the outcome will be, and there should be none in your mind either.

Despite injuries, despite a stretch of cold bats, the Phils and their front office will take care of business the way they know how.

It’s September the 8th, 2010, and the two time National League Champions are in first place again. If the Braves can knock off the team at this stage, much credit should be given to them.

Despite statistically being better than the Phils “across the board” we’ve got to recognize the fact that, there are some very important factors that are just as important, if not, more important than statistics that tell the real story. Those factors should most certainly be considered.

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