Five Encouraging Parts of the Phillies Sweep of the Mets This Weekend

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We’ve gotten so used to crappy development after crappy development
with our teams this past year that it’s almost unsettling when something
unreservedly positive happens with one of them. But in case you were
too busy this weekend watching game film on Matt Barkley or celebrating
the historic demise of the Lakers and Celtics, the rumors are true–the
Phillies swept the Mets at Citi Field this weekend, winning three games
by a combined score of 18-5. If it was five years ago, this would have
been cause for rioting in the streets; even in 2013, it’s a pretty cool
thing.

None of the three games were even particularly close–yesterday
afternoon’s game was knotted for a while, but the Phils broke it open in
the seventh and the Mets never really fought back. And in the meantime,
a whole bunch of our guys who had been struggling some got to get back
on track. Some of the positives include:

1. Cole’s first win of the season. Hamels had gone a
dispiriting five starts without earning a W, despite going at least six
innings while allowing  three runs or fewer in his last three starts.
He finally got one yesterday, although it wasn’t Cole’s sharpest
performance–he walked an uncharacteristic six batters, his most since
July of last year. But he managed to get out of trouble and only let up
two hits all game, and after giving the Mets one in the first, went five
more scoreless before turning the game over to the bullpen.

2. The Bullpen holding tight. Speaking of which.
After being about as secure as a Playskool piggy bank for four games
against the Pirates, the bullpen was actually on lockdown for this
series, letting up only two hits and one run in seven innings of
combined work, the lone damage courtesy of a John Buck solo blast off
Jeremy Horst in a game the Phils were already leading 9-3. The bullpen
on this team was supposed to be a strength, so it’s good to see that the
Pittsburgh disaster situation does not appear to be a continuing
crisis.


3. Ryan getting on track. Ryan Howard only had one
hit in each of the three games–he was just a pinch-hitter in the third
game anyway–but he made them count, with a game-breaking three-run homer
in the first, a floodgate-opening RBI single in the second, and a huge,
go-ahead two-run double in the third. He ended with seven RBIs on the
series, awesome production from our hot-and-cold cleanup hitter. Ryan’s
clearly still not the MVP candidate he was a half-decade ago, with more
of his one-time home runs dying at the wall and his walk rate
diminishing to near non-existence, but if he can at least stay a net
positive on offense, we won’t be kept up at nights thinking about the
four years, nearly $100 mil left on his contract.

4. Dom and JMJ going back-to-back. Domonic Brown’s
alternately frustrating and tantalizing year continues, as he only went
3-13 on the series, but with one of those three being a three-run blast
that put game two of the series to bed in the fifth inning. John
Mayberry Jr. followed that with a solo blast of his own, continuing his
2011-level production for the season, with ten extra base hits (tied for
second on the team) in just 73 plate appearances. We could really use
at least one of these guys turning out to actually be a good, reliable
everyday outfielder, so we’ll continue to grasp onto these scraps while
gritting our teeth through their 0-4 with three strikeouts games.

5. Kyle going the distance. Kyle Kendrick picked up
just the second shutout victory of his career with a three-hit,
one-walk, five-K blanking of the Mets in the series opener. With his 2-1
record, 2.41 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 3:1 K/BB ratio, Kendrick has been the
unlikely ace of the Phils’ pitching staff this year, despite making over
$15 million less than three of our other starters. It might not last,
but going back to the second half of last year now, Kendrick has made a
decisive case for being a reliable back-end starter, if not more. He
probably won’t get optioned to Triple A again at any point this year, at
the very least.

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