Phillies Hit the Skids

Update: Long piece on the "Curse of Chief Wahoo" at Cleveland Frowns. I am not a proponent of changing the Indians' mascot (let alone the name), but everyone seems to have some sort of opinion on this.

Sure doesn't seem like that long ago they were riding high and sweeping the Braves in Atlanta. Sunday Philadelphia lost their 5th straight, 4th straight series, 8th out of 11 games, and the lead in the NL East shrunk to one. All at once the bats have gone quiet. Today was bad because ace Cole Hamels was on the mound and pitched pretty HAMELS and still we still lost, 3-2. Maybe I shouldn't have made fun of the Mets so much the last month or so. Not even my lucky blue alternate hat could bring a win today....it was undefeated this season up until this point. That is how bleak things are.

While I am complaining, interleague play has got to be fixed or scrapped. It is totally unfair that teams in the same division (Phillies, Marlins, Mets, Braves) play different teams. Again this year the Phillies had to play Boston for no good reason - Philadelphia has played Boston every year since interleague play began in the late 90s except one, and that was 2007. That was also the season the Phillies made the playoffs. Losing 2 of 3 or getting swept by the Red Sox is getting old, especially when other division rivals don't have to play them. This year the NL East plays the AL West - and everyone plays doormat Seattle except the Phillies, who played the Red Sox instead. There is no good reason for this - the teams are not rivals and they both have high attendance so they don't need an extra good draw at the gate. When your season has come down to the last series the last three seasons, every game takes on an extra importance. It is flat out is not fair that we play different teams than our division foes. Last year the Braves got brutalized during IL play. It changed their season and they came out of it with a huge hole. The schedule matters.

So in sum, I don't have a problem with interleague play, but the Phillies have to play Boston, so should the rest of the division. Coincidentally, the last time the Phillies lost 5 in a row? May 16-21, 2006. And of course, the Red Sox were involved in that streak as well.

But still in first. And on to Oakland.