No One Counting Out the Phils in the NL East
Ryan Fagan - SportingNews.com
Jun 04, 2010
ATLANTA -- Tim Hudson was standing in front of his locker on Tuesday night, talking about the importance of commanding his changeup and keeping the ball low in the strike zone.
Both, he said, were keys to his winning effort in the Braves' victory against the Phillies that night. His closer, Billy Wagner, had another opinion on Hudson's key contribution. "How about that hittin' streak, though?" he asked as he moved behind the group of reporters.
Hudson smiled. "Yeah, man." Wagner knew that Hudson's first-inning single extended the pitcher's hitting streak to five games, and he wanted everyone else to know, too. "Let's don't forget the real important stuff, now." Hudson ran with it. "That's, what, 25 games for a real guy, if that's the equation we're going with? It's a 25-game hitting streak. That's pretty good."
That is pretty good, which mirrors just about everything else with the Braves right now.
They've won nine in a row and are 20-5 in their past 25 games. They entered May in last place in the NL East, five games behind the first-place Phillies. They completed a sweep of Philadelphia on Wednesday, and now are in first place, three games ahead of the Phillies.
What about the rest of the division?
Phillies
The Phillies are, to say the least, dealing with a different situation than the Braves. The bottom has fallen out in Philadelphia-their division lead, which reached as many as five games on May 17, has disappeared. Their offense, which carried them to the World Series in 2008 and 2009, has disappeared. At least with an off-day today, the pressure disappears for a day. "I don't see how that's going to hurt us," manager Charlie Manuel joked after Wednesday's 2-1 loss in Atlanta.
In their past 11 games, the Phillies have been shut out five times and scored a total of 14 runs. It's certainly disconcerting for Philadelphia fans, but there is no panic in the Phillies' clubhouse and there are no celebrations in opposing clubhouses. "Obviously they've had their troubles over there, but we've had our troubles as well, earlier in the season," Hudson said. "Everybody's got to go through it, they've got to battle through some tough times. They're having their share of it right now, but they're a great ballclub and they're going to get out of it."
Mets
The Mets might be the most spastic .500 team of the past decade. They have eight- and five-game winning streaks and they have five- and four-game losing skids. They've had two of the most consistent starters in the N.L. this season-Mike Pelfrey (2.39 ERA) and Johan Santana (3.03 ERA)-and two of the worst-John Maine (6.13 ERA) and Oliver Perez (5.94 ERA before losing his spot in the rotation). Jerry Manuel could eventually win manager of the year, or he could be fired within the month; with this team, neither would be a huge surprise.
Marlins
They appear to have gotten past the frustrating Hanley Ramirez situation and are back to the situation where they'll go as far as their starting pitching carries them. And, with ace Josh Johnson teamed with Anibal Sanchez, Ricky Nolasco and Chris Volstad, that means they'll be in the playoff conversation all year long. Maybe not contention, but the conversation.
Nationals
Right or wrong, everything with the Nationals is geared around the June 8 debut of phenom Stephen Strasburg, the No. 1 pick of last June's draft. So much so that it's been way too easy to overlook solid seasons from Josh Willingham and Adam Dunn, the potential leap to superstar for Ryan Zimmerman, the unexpected rise of ace Livan Hernandez (yeah, we said "ace") and the debut of Drew Storen. And, y'know, the fact that they've already won 26 games this year after reaching just 59 victories each of the past two seasons.
Ryan Fagan is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at rfagan@sportingnews.com, and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ryan_fagan.
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