Phillies Offense Starting to Heat Up

It’s no secret that the Phillies offense has struggled since the All-Star break.  Things had gotten so bad, it was hard to imagine they would be able to turn things around quickly enough to keep pace with the red hot Mets.  Three games later, everything has changed.  Before this four-game series with the Dodgers started, I said the Phillies needed to win at least three games to consider the series a success.  They’ve already accomplished that, and look to close out the sweep tonight.

While the starting pitching has been very good in this series, much of the credit needs to go to the offense which finally appears to be breaking out of its month-long slump.  They have scored runs with timely hits, and even though some of them have been home runs, they haven’t relied on the long ball to put runs on the board.  I think some of the credit for this turn-around needs to go to Charlie Manuel.  He juggled the lineup — he moved Utley to the two hole, Burrell to the three spot and Victorino to the five spot — which has really seemed to spark things for the Phillies.  Though I like the changes, I would still like to see him lead off with Victorino, and drop Jimmy Rollins down in the order.  That would provide Utley, Burrell and Howard with more run producing opportunities since Rollins has been struggling — just 4-for-46 since making his ill-advised comments about the fans — and Victorino has been getting on base consistently.

Their play this weekend has the Phillies sitting just 0.5 games behind the Mets for the NL East lead.  They will hand the ball to Brett Myers tonight, as they try to finish off a sweep of the Dodgers.