The Phillies have done a remarkable job making up ground in the National League wild card race over the last week. Their seven-game winning streak, combined with losing streaks by St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, have allowed the once-dead Phils to suddenly start believing again.

Well, that was nice while it lasted.

Thursday night’s 6-4 loss to the pathetically awful Astros in Houston proves just how difficult the task before the Phillies really is. There is almost no room for error. And last night, the Phils wasted one of the few bullets they have left.

This four game series against the 46-98 Astros is an opportunity to bank some victories against a putrid opponent. A sweep would not have been an unreasonable expectation, not against a team just two games away from 100 losses.

But things did not get off to a good start on Thursday.

Both the offense and the much-improved bullpen deserves blame for this one. The Phillies jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead against Houston starter Lucas Harrell, giving Tyler Cloyd a nice cushion in the third. And a four run lead against an offense as brutal as the Astros’ should have been more than enough.

Apparently, the Phils’ offense felt the same way. They left 11 men on base while going just 2 for 9 with runners in scoring position.

Even against a team that stinks as bad as the Astros, it’s important to continue to add on runs and step on their necks.

Unfortunately, rookie hurler Tyler Cloyd didn’t know what to do with such good fortune and allowed the Astros to wiggle out of their predicament. He gave three of those runs right back in the fourth, failing to record even a single out in that frame. That forced Charlie Manuel to turn the game over to the ‘pen which, a month ago, would have been a death sentence against any team, including Houston.

But for four innings, the bullpen did their job, holding the Astros scoreless thanks to two innings from B.J. Rosenberg, an inning from Josh Lindblom and another encouraging outing from Antonio Bastardo.

However, as it has all season, the eighth inning was their undoing.

Phillippe Aumont, who had been so brilliant since his call-up two weeks ago, simply ran out of gas. The young right-hander gave up two walks and hit a batter, leaving with two outs and the bases loaded. That brought on Jake Diekman to face left-hander Jed Lowrie, who laced a two-run double to center that put the Astros in front to stay.

However, it would be wrong to get too mad at Aumont and the bullpen. It was the third straight day for the frenchman on the mound, and even though the kid has been terrific, he’s still a rookie who has less than a dozen Major League games under his belt.

“He looked out of gas,” Manuel said. “He’s the guy we wanted, but the more he stayed out there you could see he didn’t have the stuff he had [Wednesday].”

For his part, Aumont faced the media like a man.

“I had to step up. I felt a little more tired than other days, but I have to be prepared for that. This is something I have to learn from.”

Learning. That’s what this month was supposed to be about. But circumstances have changed all that.

Unfortunately, this is what happens when you enter the playoff picture at the 11th hour. There is simply no room for error. And a loss against a gimme team full of ham-and-eggers like the Houston Astros is especially crushing, because they’re essentially a AAA team wearing Major League uniforms.

With the loss, the Phillies are now four games back of St. Louis, who beat the Dodgers Thursday night 2-1. The Dodgers are now two games back, with Pittsburgh three back and the Brewers now ahead of the Phils in the standings, 3 1/2 behind the Cardinals.

There are now just 18 games left.

And if the Phils do end up missing out on the playoffs by one game, they’ll probably look back at this loss to the Astros as the one that got away.

Where It All Went Wrong

When Jake Diekman gave up the game-changing two-run double to Jed Lowrie, Houston’s most “experienced” player. He’s 28 and is in his fifth Major League season. That tells you all you need to know about the peach fuzz-sporting cast of characters currently making up this Houston roster. Most of them just learned to drive.

Most Attractive Play

Jimmy Rollins stealing the 400th base of his career. It was a great hustle play, completely catching the Astros napping, displaying awareness and, dare I say it, hustle. It’s also a nice, round number, and we all know how much Hall of Fame voters like nice, round numbers!

Hero

Rosenberg, Lindblom and Bastardo, who pitched four innings of scoreless baseball, preserving the Phils’ one-run lead… at least until…

Goat

…Aumont and Diekman entered, blowing another eighth inning lead. But like I said before, cut these guys some slack. This was never supposed to be a post-season run. This was supposed to be a 2013 audition, and young pitchers are going to have their growing pains. On the whole, these two guys have a ton of promise and will have more good nights than bad before all is said and done.

Put simply, the Astros lineup consists of about three or four Michael Martinezes on a nightly basis.

To give us a glimpse into the exact amount of suckitude we will witness this weekend are the good folks at Astros Country.

Even in our best seasons, the Astros have a history of being un-cooperatively competent in a four-game series.  With the Phillies position being somewhat weakened this year, what sort of stupid thing do the Astros have planned?

The Astros just might screw up and win a couple of games. The last few Septembers haven’t been kind to the Phillies in regard to Houston. Since 2010, the Phillies are 3-8 against the Astros. Of course, 2010 and 2011 were a couple of levels of hell above where the Astros are in 2012 (in the present-tense, anyway). The Astros have won five whole games in September – and while I realize that the Phillies have won five games in the last four hours, that’s a pretty big deal for us since the Astros won five games from June 28-August 10. And eight games in all of July and August, combined. So pardon me if I don’t get all up on your cute little #WildCardFever hashtag.

ESPN recently decided that the Astros have hit rock bottom.  I assumed this was some clever pun about being swept by the Rockies or something.  Instead, it indicated that losing their fans for what may be years to come is as low as the team can drop.  Is this at all accurate?  And if so, how long will it be that way?

For some fans, sure. Even in their first years as the Colt .45s, they hadn’t lost 100 games. They’re going to lose 100 for the second straight season, and are about to move to the AL West. Combine that with the fact that the Texans (switching sports, I know) are tabbed to make a Super Bowl run, and the Rangers are annoyingly good, some weak-minded former Astros fans might find themselves looking to do anything except watch or attend an Astros game. It’s going to take some time for them to come back. Houston doesn’t have a great reputation for supporting a losing team. Until they beat the Rangers with regularity and make a few – yes, plural – runs to the playoffs, it’s going to be tough to get Astros fans back. Unless Roger Clemens makes a start in a couple of weeks. Then they’ll sell the place out.

This has been a familiar scene in Houston this year. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Campbell-US PRESSWIRE

If you had full access to the Astros’ official team store with permission to walk out with one current player’s jersey free of charge, who would it be?  Is there anyone on the team right now that will be part of a corps of championship players within the next 5-10 years? 

There are a few possibilities – most of what will be the core for the next ten years is still in the minors. Still, it’s not hard to get excited about Jose Altuve. Jimmy Paredes, who is getting an early look (and committed three errors the other night), has a chance to stick. There’s also Matt Dominguez at 3B who has played well over the last couple of weeks. Jordan Lyles will be in his 3rd year in 2013 and will only be 22 years old. Is there anyone who will be a Hall of Famer? I don’t know – but 2013 is just the next step towards respectability. And fear.

Is it true that you can just bring your own food right into Minute Maid Park?  Just like, right through the gate, and not stuffed into anyone’s girlfriend’s purse without telling her right before we get to security?

It is true! You can also put a bunch of bottled water in a cooler, dump the water out of one bottle, and replace it with vodka or your favorite rum drink. Just be sure to mark the bottle that you did that with.

Does anybody–actual, real people; not owners desperate for gate takes or those who want to gorge themselves at a media circus–actually want to see Roger Clemens in an Astros uniform?

In a very selfish way, I’m hoping it happens. See, my wife and I had a kid – our first – this summer. It was determined, not by me, that MLB.tv was an unnecessary expense. So the fact that the Sugar Land Skeeters have had more nationally televised games than the Astros kind of pisses me off. I’d get a chance to see the Astros not play the Reds or Barves. Also, keep in mind that the Astros have a “reliever” named Fernando Rodriguez who has ten losses. I’d be more okay (but not really okay on the Spectrum of Okayness) if he pitched an inning in relief. Instead of Fernando Rodriguez.

Who will be the Astros next manager and will it be Craig Biggio and how revamped are the Astros going to be in the AL and how excited is everyone to move to the AL and will there be a new mascot and will it be Orbit?

I have no idea who will be the next manager. Nationals 3B coach Bo Porter has been linked to the job, and I hope that he gets a good look. Maybe Bobby Valentine will be the next manager, and it will be like a 6-month long snuff film. Revamped? The Astros are gonna Astro, and people are going to laugh. But at some point in the next few years, the Astros might be hailed as one of the greatest rebuilding projects in modern baseball history. No one is excited about the move to the American League. There will be a new mascot, and I hope they look like this.

Thank you, this has been all of my leftover questions.

No. Thank YOU.

Now, he is a pitcher in the Philadelphia Phillies starting rotation, alongside guys like Roy Hallady, Cole Hamels, and Cliff Lee.  And, being closer to those guys geographically, he is expected to pitch more like them than ever.  It is a bit odd that Cloyd, in three starts, has yet to reach fairly traditional Major League pitching benchmarks like a perfect game, being World Series MVP, or throwing ten shut-out innings in one game.  But the Phillies are having him run a different kind of gambit in his next start:  pitching on merely three days rest.

PICTURED: Tyler Cloyd at “rest.” Eric Hartline-US PRESSWIRE

I can’t even take out the garbage without two or three weeks of notice.  So this is a huge deal.

Of course, he will be pitching against the Astros, which is like pitching against a squad of small, sad Little Leaguers who can’t even afford the latest video game consoles so they have nothing to look forward to on the way home after losing.

But, thanks to his abbreviated start in the Rockies day-night double header, Cloyd is going to be handed the ball a mere 72 hours since he last touched it.  Now, you’re probably wondering, “Is that even allowed?  Should we talking about this?”  And the answer no, we’re playing this one pretty close to the chest.

Cloyd threw 76 pitches, which is very low, so the Phillies and Cloyd himself and most people with arms are confident that he won’t damage himself terribly by coming through.  Rich Dubee has yet to be reached for comment on this issue, but you can probably bet that he’s angry about Cloyd being overconfident or for him not throwing at least 110 pitches in his last start I mean whose rotation do you think this is.

“Fuck… something.” Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

Meanwhile, the Astros have yet to deliver their annual September four-game sweep of the Phillies in 2012, so there’s that notion to fear endlessly, and putting a rookie out there on limited rest is probably tempting fate a great deal more than necessary.

However, these sweeps have come during years when the disparity between the Phillies and Astros records was astronomical.  Perhaps this year, with the Phillies far from the unanimous favorite for the NL pennant, the Astros will for some reason be less dominant in a four game series?

Look, I’m sure the Astros have players on their team and everything, but being one of the flimsy squads the Phillies hope to pave over on their way to an unlikely playoff birth, perhaps this will be a season of offsetting norms.

Hell, Kyle Kendrick is an ace.