Phillies Take Down Two Division Leaders in One Week (Reposted from 5/7/2010)

My Fellow Phillies Fans, 

It is pretty obvious this last week has quite an eventful one for the Phillies. It all started last weekend when the hated mets came to Citizens Bank Park for the first time this season. While the mets took round 1 of the series, The Phitins’  came back to take the next two and win the series. The most impressive part of that series was how the Phillies smacked around the Mets top 2 starters, Santana and Pelfrey, who were both also pitching at an elite level in this early going. In Game 2, Roy Halladay shut down the New Yorkers in a complete game victory as the Phillies smacked around Mike Pelfrey. As much as, or probably more impressive, was the bashing our lineup gave Johan Santana on Sunday. The scene was set; Phillies vs. Mets on Sunday night. The world was ready to see a good game and the Phillies made Santana look like a rookie. As a fan of the game, I can safely say that Santana is one of the better starters in the league, but the Phillies have seemed comfortable hitting against him. Hopefully this trend continues throughout the season.

Then the first place Cardinals came into town. I honestly do not know what it is, maybe its sheer luck or maybe they have some sort of plan, but the Phillies handled the great Albert Pujols this season. A .340ish hitter on the season, Pujols hit just .250 in this latest series against the Phillies. That was the key to the series. Stop Pujols and you generally stop the Cardinals. Of course great pitching helps as well. Kudos to Kyle Kendrick, Cole Hamels, Roy Halladay, Brad Lidge, and even  Joe Blanton, who pitched better than the box score would indicate, on their great efforts. Once again, they dropped the opener only to take the series with 3 straight wins.

Notice, I did not even mention the whole “tazing” thing, Trust me, I will do so in my very next post. So look for that.

If you think about it, the Phillies took care of two first place teams so far this home stand, as the mets were technically in first when they got here to Philadelphia. They shut down the top players, in Santana and Pujols, of the two teams and won both series. It’s good to see this team finally start to play like we all know they are capable of doing so. It’s going to be a fun season to watch and let’s hope they can keep this level going throughout most of the season.