Even on the Road

So the Phillies wrapped up their 10 day, 10 game road trip yesterday with a resounding 7-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. The win yesterday gave the Phillies their first road series win of the season and brought their record on the road trip to an even 5-5. Knowing the way the Phillies have been playing I think most if not all Phillies fans should be pleased with the way the trip turned out. If you remember it all got started with the marquee pitching match-up of Halladay vs Lincecum in San Francisco, Well one of those pitchers lived up to the billing. Roy Halladay was really good that night while Lincecum was awful. The next two games did not go as planned. Dropping both to the Giants, in the series finale Cliff Lee would pitch 10 scoreless innings in a 1-0 loss (11 innings). The next series was in San Diego, a four game set against the Padres in a stadium that the Phillies have really enjoyed playing in since it opened in 2004. Going into the series the Phillies had been 22-4 all time at Petco Park and had not lost there since August 2008 (11 in a row). Thanks to strong outings by Vance Worley and San Diego hometown boy Cole Hamels they would extend that streak to 13 in a row and 24-4. Not to say the hitting was good those two games but they went completely silent the next two games of the series. Both losses that looked really bad if you were watching at any point it was hard. Hard to see no effort and bad pitching. So the streak was snapped and now the Phillies record at Petco Park is a mere 24-6. During the series against the Padres, we learned that Cliff Lee would be heading to the DL and would miss at least 2 starts including the upcoming series opener in Arizona. So what did that mean you ask? Kyle Kendrick would get the start, his first of the season and as many Phillies fans would pray for it to be his last. Well I wish i could say he proved us all wrong but that was not the case, Kendrick lasted only 3 innings yielding 7 runs on 11 hits. The Phillies were trailing 6-0 after two innings and that does spell success for this team right now when they are struggling to hit regularly. So needless to say they dropped the first game. The last two games of the series went so much better. The bats woke up and pounded out a total of 15 runs, thats only 5 runs less then they scored in the 8 games of the road trip combined.

Winning the last two games of the trip has to make the team feel good. It has to make the fans feel good. I have seen some people say that the Phillies are hard to watch, its not fun right now. Have the Phillies fans gotten spoiled over the last 5 years? Is there really a sense of entitlement? Yes 102 wins last year was amazing, but it was earned, not given to them. This year so far the Phillies are 9-10 and while most would say the team in underachieving I would say they are right where I expected them to be. However they really need to get in gear if they want to get where both the team and the fans expect them to be, the playoffs. The Phillies currently sit 5.5 games out of first place but with a 4 game series at home with the Cubs this weekend and 9 straight games against NL Divisional teams following that, its a great chance to get the ship righted. However if those divisional games go not go so well, the Phillies could find themselves in quite the uphill climb the rest of the season.

Michael Schwimer has been recalled to fill in for the
injured Michael Stutes

In other news from this week, the Phillies placed Michael Stutes on the DL and recalled pitcher Michael Schwimer from Triple A Iron Pigs. Schwimmer made his first appearance of 2012 yesterday pitching a perfect 9th inning to preserve the win for Cole Hamels. Also it was said that Ryan Howard is about a week away from resuming baseball activities. Don't get too excited yet he is still probably not gonna be ready until sometime in June at the earliest. Chase Utley is also in the news as he was with the team in Arizona. lending support for this teammates in the dugout. He will remain in Arizona to work out and continue is rehab for his knee problems. Here is hoping both guys can make it back soon. Its obvious the team needs them both really bad.

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