The Phillies have had some games in which their offense was not as good as it could have been, games in which they were held to very few runs, and games in which they had many base runners but just couldn’t seem to get hits in important situations.  Even some of those games were against pitchers who were not all that great.

When I looked at the score from one of those games, my initial thought was that maybe the reason they couldn’t knock in the runners was that their lineup wasn’t very good.

But in a moment, I realized that I was wrong.  The problem was not in their lineup.  The problem was in their players. The lineup had holes.

The Phillies have a very solid team.  They have great pitching, great offense, a good manager, and good coaches. They are just a plain, good, old team.

Because of that they have, unlike many other teams, the potential to do good.  They have a World Series winning lineup.  They have a starting rotation that is one of the best in the league.  They have all that it takes to win.

Those players who created the holes had the potential to do great.  If they were playing as good as they had at their best, they would have knocked in those runs. 

The Phillies won the World Series in 2008, and they won the National League title in 2009.  Both of those years, the key to their success was that all of their players were playing as good as they could.

For a lot of teams, the only reason they lose is because their players aren’t very good, and the only reason they win is because their players surprise everyone by doing good.

But not the Phillies.

Almost every single one of the Phillies players is good.  There are no surprises when Ryan Howard hits a home run.  There are no surprises when Jimmy Rollins steals a base. 

Because those players are good.  The Phillies are good.

The Phillies win when all of the players in their lineup play as good as they have, as good as they could, as good as they should.  That is the key to the team of the Philadelphia Phillies.  They just have to get all their players playing on the top of their game.

The Phillies have the potential to win.  They have the ability to win.  They have the skill to win.  They have the players to win.  All they have to do is to get it to fit.

That’s what they did when they won the World Series.  And that’s what they have to do to win it again.

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