A Tale of Two Cities
Posted By: J Stump
Posted: 8/25/2008 10:14:29 PM
A mere week ago, things turned very bleak for the Phillies, as they were embarrassingly swept in LA, to start a road trip that ended a disastrous 2-5. Along with being swept by the Dodgers, the Mets took over sole possession of first place. Adding insult to injury, JRoll made his now infamous comment towards the Philly fans on national TV, and then proceeded to back it up by throwing out a mechanical mannequin to play the next week and a half worth of games.
What a difference a few days and 2,700 miles makes. Tonight the Phillies completed their own sweep of the Dodgers. Three of the four games were pretty handedly won, including tonights shut out of the boys in blue in addition to the hard fought come from behind victory I've already covered here. The Mets were able to beat up on Ed Wade's team today, so the Phillies still sit a half game out of first, but certainly the future is brighter than it had been coming into the weekend.
Tonight, Jimmy even made a return from the dead by getting on base all 5 times he came up. Let's hope the body double is never heard of again, and I never have the right to invoke the Willie Mays Hayes moniker that often fits a little too snug on our little MVP. Brett Myers pitched another tough game, getting himself out of trouble every inning, and turning the ball over to the bullpen without giving up any runs. If this is the Brett Myers that's going to show up the rest of this year, I think we finally have a #2 starter behind Hamels.
Here's my question though...last week was a pretty depressing time for all of us and right now, we're probably feeling rather optimistic. So given an outcome of 4 victories and 4 losses against the Dodgers, who happen to be fighting for a playoff birth and upgraded their offense significantly with the addition of Manny, is it better to have been swept and then returned the favor, or would we have preferred splitting each series at 2-2? The outcome is the same, so perhaps the point is moot, but I'm talking about the feelings stirred up by the team, the faith that each of us pours into them, the intangible belief we hold onto for the outcome of the season.
Feel free to weigh in on your feelings whether we'd have been more comfortable with the Phillies managing a win or two in LA or if we're OK with the outcome we got of going 0-4 and then coming back and ripping off our own sweep. I'll have a follow up post tomorrow about what lies ahead of the team as we reach the postseason.
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