At the start of the Phillies season the layout seemed pretty simple. Start with the also rebuilding Atlanta Braves three times, faced the rival New York Mets, the newly gutted Miami Marlins and a couple predictable low class teams with the Arizona Diamondbacks being the only challenge. Except things did not go quite so simple.
The Braves looked a lot more like contenders than rebuilders, beating the Phils in all three series. The Mets started out red hot and swept the Phillies in a shortened series, and the Diamondbacks after all took two of three. Adding in a 2-2 against the Marlins and the Phillies ended up 6-12 against that set of semi-challenging teams.