the important numbers as of right now:



milwaukee is only 2 games back in the loss column, but they're a whopping 8 games back in the loss column. philly also has 5 games in hand over the braves.

from philly.com:

The Phillies, of course, are in no jeopardy of missing the playoffs

if the giants, who are the 2nd place team in the wild card chase, win every game left on their schedule, taking them to 99-63, it would take the phillies finishing 15-17 to miss the playoffs.

i'd say we're in a pretty comfortable position.

If finishing with the best record in the league is important to the Phillies -- and it should be -- then nothing is going to be easy about September.

finsihing with a better record than the brewers is fairly insignificant. what's important is that the team finishes with a better record than the braves and sets up a matchup with the NL west winner.

Since the Phillies and Braves still play each other six times, Atlanta controls its own fate, but it seems unlikely that they would sweep all six games.

as i said above, the phillies have 5 games in hand over the braves. even assuming they lose all 6 remaining games vs. the braves, they'd only have to play even with them vs. the rest of the NL, plus win 3 of the 5 games they have in hand.

i'd still say that's a fairly comfortable position to be in.




at this point, i'm not too concerned about turning this into a historic season. going 7-6 over the last 13, plus having to play 33 games in the next 31 days, and not having a single off day until the season is over has kinda taken that ambition out of me. all i want right now is for the team to find a way to stay healthy and rested over this god-awful, yet awfully intriguing stretch of the season. the emergence of mayberry should make this easier to accomplish since he can take starts away from ibanez, victorino, and howard. finding a way to rest utley, polanco, and rollins could be slightly more problematic.

also, for those who didn't see it in one of the primer threads, yonder alonso will be starting at 3B for the reds tonight. to this point in his professional career, he's played exactly 0 innings at the position.

should be fun.


don't get swept.

33 games in 31 days:
1-0.