Possibly awakened Philadelphia Phillies entertain significant foes now

All right, then, I’m pretty sure that few, if any, of you had the Philadelphia Phillies sweeping out the Los Juggernaut Dodgers on this month’s bingo card. I certainly didn’t. So, in true Philadelphia form, the Phillies didn’t do that.

A pitcher the Dodgers jettisoned, Corey Knebel, gave up a game-winning RBI single to Gavin Lux, the infielder who was primarily responsible for the Phillies nearly pulling off “the impossible” because of an error. Philly had to settle for a series win, 3-1, in a 5-4 loss.

It’s a little difficult to know what to make of the Philadelphia Phillies’ recent, “successful” trip west.

What can be made of this, considering the Phillies otherwise explosive Far West trip?

Well, you pessimists, think about what just occurred. What often happens when the Fightin’s play on the West Coast? They collapse. Of course, history says Phillies can collapse anytime, anywhere.

However, in the past week, this extraordinarily expensive Philadelphia ball club actually played up to both Delaware Valley optimists’ expectations for the club this season. They took two of three from the Mariners, a team with a roughly equal record to theirs as their series began, and they bombed the living hell out of an alleged contender for the greatest team ever assembled.

The Phillies outscored the Freeman-Betts Dodgers, 29-20, in their first three games, and suggested they might actually be worth the money their owners coughed up for Nick Castellanos and the currently underperforming Kyle Schwarber.

(No, it doesn’t matter how far Schwarber’s homer went May 13. It scored no extra runs for distance or its grand exit velocity.)

The Phillies played well in modern terms on this trip. Aside from falling into their habit of not adequately supporting Aaron Nola (for his whole career), they showed that they are not actually to be trifled with.

Manager Joe Girardi even left Nola pitch as long as he should have Sunday, seven full innings. The problem arose when he replaced him in the following frame with Jeurys Familia, an alleged late-innings reliever, who set up the loss by surrendering a run while recording, in a statistical hilarity, a hold.

Familia hasn’t had an ERA below 3.00 for over four years, and when it counts, he doesn’t find the plate. He’s close, yes, mostly, but Angel Hernandez isn’t back there every night.

Still, Familia may improve in his MLB old age, and after all, the Phillies gave MVP candidate Bryce Harper a day off for an injection for the “slight” tear in his ulnar collateral ligament.

Which bring us to a large potential problem for the surging Phillies….

For a week, however, they looked really good. The Padres will be visiting them, beginning on Tuesday, and then the Dodgers will try to return the insult they suffered in their own house in the Phillies’ home.