Phillies in a familiar place, just different

LOS ANGELES – You wonder where the Philadelphia Phillies are going with this.
When their game went from Ryan and Chase to Punch and Judy.
When they started leaning on football jerseys
all this pitching and when the bats were due to arrive from Clearwater.
Nine months since they carted themselves off the field at Yankee Stadium, their manager vowing to be back and everyone inclined to believe him, the Phillies have altered their M.O., along with their ID and, well, their OPS.
The makeover was not entirely intentional, of course, and neither has it been entirely detrimental.
They’ve had their injuries, many of them gut-shots to the lineup. They’ve had their slumps, having been one-hit three times, having scored seven runs during a four-game sweep by the Houston Astros in Philly last week, having hit about three home runs a week fewer than they did all last season.
But Roy Halladay(notes) came along and so eventually did Roy Oswalt(notes), softening the short-sighted decision to trade Cliff Lee(notes), and Cole Hamels(notes) got some of his game back, and the bullpen is maybe less flammable at times.
And now, on Sept. 1, the Phillies have 75 wins, or one fewer (in four fewer games) than they did last Sept. 1.
Push through the various numbers and trends and slumps and bad thumbs and consternation, and still the biggest difference in the Philadelphia Phillies this season is the Atlanta Braves.
“We’re a good team,” Rollins insisted. “We can play good baseball. We’ve been booby-trapped by that this year, but we’re moving in the right direction.”
The Phillies are three games back (and leading the wild card race). A year ago, they were 7½ games up. There’s a perspective adjustment for you. They ultimately won 93 games. They’ll probably have to win more than that if they’re to be NL East champions for another year, which, if not impossible, will be a big lift. (They have won at least 17 games in each of the past three Septembers.)
They’re still waiting on the usual savvy and violent at-bats from their core – Ryan Howard(notes), Chase Utley(notes) and Jimmy Rollins(notes) – and weather and circumstance means they’re in a 23-day slog in which they’ll play 24 games, and the Braves do seem to have a very healthy view of themselves.
The wild card is fine and would have to do. But, in reaching the World Series in back-to-back seasons, the Phillies were 12-3 at Citizens Bank Park in the postseason. They’d hate to have to lean on the National League’s once-in-a-generation All-Star win for their only San Diego Chargers jersey
shot at home-field advantage this October (and November), though by Wednesday afternoon at Dodger Stadium these weren’t the sort of thoughts that had come across Charlie Manuel’s desk.
Mostly, he’d be pleased to have come out West and hit at all, given the ballparks and pitching staffs that awaited, and given the condition of his offense when he left Philadelphia six days before. His fellas hit SoCal and scored a good-enough 24 runs in six games and won five of them, because the other fellas scored just 11 times, the San Diego-L.A. portion of the trip beginning and ending with a dominant Oswalt.
His face and forearms reddened by an afternoon in the sun, Manuel was happy as a pig in slop about his starting pitching, or certainly as it might set up come October. He shrugged his shoulders, a gesture meant to convey, “Assuming we get there.”
“I think our starting pitching is the best it’s been since I’ve been here,” said Manuel, who’s now 10 years on the job and has had his hands full for plenty of them.
The chore now is to put a cattle prod to the offense, which for a couple days was utterly competent again. Howard homered Tuesday night, and Rollins homered and Utley had three doubles Wednesday. They packed up and headed for a makeup game in Colorado on Thursday. They get the Milwaukee Brewers for three over the weekend in Philadelphia, with a doubleheader against the Florida Marlins waiting on Monday.
“It’s going to take our offense to be more consistent,” Manuel said, “and our pitching has to stay exactly where it is. We know we can hit. It’s just a matter of us doing it. That will make for a big September.”
Meantime, they play away from the perception they’ve changed for the worse, and irrevocably. And if they harbored any such fears, the Phillies were in a good place for perspective this week. The Dodgers – the franchise they’d eliminated in consecutive championship series – have burst into flames. The stadium might have been half-full Wednesday. The owner and his former CEO (and estranged wife) were in a downtown courtroom. The manager is considering calling it a career. The team’s official charity is being investigated by the California attorney general’s office.
And the ballclub is all but done, a full two months ahead of schedule.
That’s change. That’s irrevocable change. That’s a mess.
The Phillies? They’re a little different. They’re not what we’re used to. They’re probably going to the playoffs. They’re still the Phillies.
“People look at us as different because they’ve seen our offense sputter,” Manuel said. “But every team’s offense is down. There’s Pittsburgh Steelers jersey
some good teams struggling like we’ve been.”
Manuel shrugged, the gesture meant to convey, “It could be worse. A lot worse.”
“You gotta let it play out,” he said.
He, too, is wondering where they’re going with this. He’ll find out when they get there.