Phillies: Bright spots glimmer from tough road trip

A rollercoaster road trip for the Phillies wasn’t all bad news thanks to some comebacks.

The Phillies are more than halfway done their a tough stretch of games against top NL teams, which started with the Rockies at home. Colorado beat up on the Phillies the last time they played, yet this time around the Phillies were the one doing the work.

Philadelphia swept the Rockies before they headed out to Chicago to start their road portion of the challenging schedule. The Phillies started with arguably their best win of the year only to blow game two in the four-game series. The Phils leveled out the trip to Chicago with a 2-2 draw, which led them to exact some revenge to the Brewers in Milwaukee.

The series started with two good wins for Philadelphia but then set-up a monstrous beat down in game three losing by seven.

Overall the Phillies were 9-3 during this stretch which, considering the talent they played, has to be seen as a positive sign. Yet, for most Phillies fans, these series felt uneasy due to the close games, fending off comebacks, or trying to come back to win a game they were trailing in earlier.

One big realization that has to come from the games so far is, the Phillies are legit and they are a team that can contend now. Yes, it’s only May but early season confidence go do great things for a team that hasn’t truly hit it’s stride yet.

For the doubters complaining about the starting pitching, Bryce Harper or the bullpen, get over yourselves.

The Phillies are in first place in the NL East, they have an offense that seems to have a new MVP each day, and they also brought in new energy to baseball that Philadelphia has been looking for years.

I’m not saying this team is perfect, or that they are going to be World Series Champs (they still could though) but this team is getting it done. Baseball more than any other sport is about averages. A 90 win season in baseball usually puts you in the playoffs, which would give the team a 90-72 season record. This is the same record the Braves had last year as they won the NL East, which put them at a .556 winning percentage.

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The best team in baseball last year (Red Sox) had an outstanding 108 wins on the season which put gave them a .667 winning percentage. The more games in baseball make it incredibly hard for teams to dominant over the .600 margin or even .700, because of all the opportunities they have to lose. So to put this in sense for the Phils, they may seem to be playing just above average baseball but it’s crucial to see that this is elite baseball.

The team is sitting in with a .585 winning percentage so far, which again is still putting them in the upper tier of MLB standing so far. It’s scary to think about what this team can do once they “hit their stride” because when (or if) that day comes, the entire league better look out.