Sweep-Cinnati: Phillies sweep Reds To Close Out First Half

My Fellow Phans,

I have to give the Phillies some credit. They didn't play that well this weekend. I mean our pitching continues to be solid yet our offense seems to struggle, but yet we got the timely hits this weekend as we swept the National League Central leading Reds.

I mean the series included a pair of 1-0 victories in which one of them the Phillies were perfect gamed for 8+innings. Now I give your Mr.Bell all the credit in the world for his efforts on Saturday, but he had a little help. The strike zone was gracious all night, ironically the exact opposite of the game on Sunday. Plus, the Phillies hitters did not really do much to try to help their cause in the later innings. First pitch swinging, swinging at pitches in hitters counts (2-0, 3-1 ect) that were not in the strike zone and producing pointless pop-ups. Throw that all into the mix and then you had the perfect game into the 9th before Carlos Ruiz, who actually worked the count, got a lead off double ending perfection.

The series turned out to be quite exciting. 3 Walk-offs in a row including what may be the greatest comeback that the Bank has ever seen on Friday. It was truly something fun to witness. I need to give props to the strong starting pitching in 3 of these 4 games and an extra big props to the bench players, Brian Schiender, Cody Ransom, Gregg Dobs, all of whom hit crucial home runs to provide the Phillies with wins in the first two games of this series.

If the Phillies can sweep the first place Reds with a lack luster offense and spotty defense from time to time, imagine how good we can be when we start scoring at the rate that everyone in this town knows that they can. I, for one, am looking forward to the 2nd half of this upcoming season.

I did hear rumblings about Werth being traded actually for awhile now. Granted Werth will walk at the end of the season as his contract seems to be his main priority these days, but the Phillies offense still cannot do anything against left handed starters this year. This is why we need to keep Werth for the time being. We need a righty in this lineup. If Werth leaves, who exactly takes his place? I'd rather trade Ibanez and move Dominic Brown up into the lineup, but we all know that is not going to happen anytime soon.

Oh what a season it has been so far and we are only half way through it. I will have to do a first half recap sometime before this All-Star break is over sometime so look out for that. I know I have promised some things in the past, but this is something that I promise to accomplish. Currently the Phillies sit with a 47-40 record and are 4.5 out of the East and just 1.5 out of the Wild Card Race. The race has just begun for the Phillies who look to continue their recent winning ways in the 2nd half of the season.

Until we meet again Phillies Fans; Happy Readings and Go Phillies!