Back Where We Belong

After last night's game, the Phillies are now back where they belong: first in runs scored in the National League.

There's still work to be done though.  The Cubs are only 2 runs behind the Phils but have played two fewer games.  However, with the Phillies' lineup completely healthy right now and the Cubs missing Alfonso Soriano for a significant chunk of time once again as well as playing Jim Edmonds almost every day, I expect the Phils' lead to widen over the rest of the season.

What's more surprising though is that the Phillies are third in the NL in runs allowed.  I'm pretty sure that no-one's pre-season fantasy, not even Rich Dubee's, included the Phils' pitching staff doing so well at this point of the season.  As MattS showed last week, there's a lot of flukiness in the Phils' stellar bullpen performance, but there's also a lot of improvement that can be had if Bret Myers can figure out how to pitch again.

I expect the Phils to fall back to the middle of the pack in runs allowed as the season goes on, but if the offense keeps chugging along on all cylinders, the team should still thrive.

This team is an offensive juggernaut.  With even mediocre pitching to complement it, we should continue the early season success without much problem.