Philadelphia Phillies Regain Their Rightful Position Atop the NL East

We all knew it would come. Now it’s that time.

Like a man on death row, you just sit and wait—you wait on your sentence and hope, something, somehow, could change your fate.

Then the inevitable day comes, and all of a sudden…you’ve lost first place.

Those Phightin’s, I don’t know how they do it, but, they live up to that name of their’s year after year.

If you haven’t been keeping up, or you fell asleep within the game last night, I’m here to tell you, those Phils have done it again. They are back in first place and they are ready to finish the last two and a half weeks off of this season in style—as they have in the last five years, or so.

With a very important series coming up in under two weeks, the Phils wasted no more time taking over the top spot, beating the Florida Marlins last night 8-7 after a scary crash by the Phillies bullpen. The bats, however, were able to come alive enough to bail Joe Blanton out.

The pitching shouldn’t be a problem down the stretch, being that the Phils have made due without such a dynamic force before.

Even if Blanton and Kyle Kendrick were to bomb every game in the playoffs, it will still be hard to beat three aces in a seven game series—and that’s without pitching some on short rest.

Amidst what seemed to be a flop by the Phillies in July and August, they have once again, stepped up to the challenge, leaving some who unnecessarily doubted them, to look back on their foolishness.

But the season is not over by any means. The Braves are still right there.

Speaking of which, we can understand the excitement of Braves fans, and the like, but, it’s clear that everyone knows, the Phils are a marathon team, who finishes strong down the stretch.

Despite ‘great debates’ of the sort the Phils and their fans know all along, there is no need to panic.

In a poll conducted by Phillies Featured Columnist, Vincent Heck, and Braves Featured Columnist, Evan Walker, a few days ago, we asked our fans who would win the NL East.

With the Phillies behind the Braves one game, the public came to an decisive conclusion–after 2,000 readers, 520 people voted, and 80% thought that the Phils would come out on top.

Quick math—that’s 416 voters for the Phils.

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind what the outcome will be, and there should be none in your mind either.

Despite injuries, despite a stretch of cold bats, the Phils and their front office will take care of business the way they know how.

It’s September the 8th, 2010, and the two time National League Champions are in first place again. If the Braves can knock off the team at this stage, much credit should be given to them.

Despite statistically being better than the Phils “across the board” we’ve got to recognize the fact that, there are some very important factors that are just as important, if not, more important than statistics that tell the real story. Those factors should most certainly be considered.

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