Three Weeks of Damage

Is the Phillies season on the line in the next three weeks? Maybe, maybe not but we will find out a lot about the post-season prospects for this team. My friend PK writes:

 

There are the links to the current standings and the Phillies schedule for the rest of August.

Last time I wrote an analysis like this, it was 2 months ago and the Phillies were on the verge of a series with the Marlins and what followed after that was a 12-game stretch against really good baseball teams (including the Cards, Red Sox and Angels). I said we'd find out how good a team we were in that stretch, and we proceeded to go 4-12 overall. That set the tone for a bad July.

Now, once again we're on the verge of another critical series with the Marlins -- but what follows after that are 17 games against teams that collectively are 62 games below .500: Pittsburgh, Dodgers, Padres, Nats, Dodgers.

We head into this series against the Marlins with our pitching lineups set up about as nice we could ask, with Moyer getting the ball tomorrow night. After that Kyle "Lieutentant, did you order the Code Red" Kendrick is next, followed by Hamels.

We probably just need to take 1 of the 3 games, 2 of 3 would be incredible; 3 of 3, out of this world. But those next 17 games are against bad teams, with only 1 of those bad teams getting any better these days (the Dodgers with Manny). Over this 20-game stretch, 12-8 is minimum what we should hope for; 13-7 would be nice. This is the stretch of a season where you can build a little cushion for the final month and the vicious part of your schedule.

Because, once we get through these 20 games, we get 6 straight games with the Mets and Cubs.

We need to do some damage the next 3 weeks.