When one enters a baseball season with a #2-5 rotation that includes Aaron Harang, Jerome Williams, Sean O’Sullivan, and — eventually — Chad Billingsley, one can expect a lot of poor ballgames. Add in that the outfield included veteran retreads in Jeff Francoeur and Grady Sizemore, and… woof. It was going to be a rough (pun not intended) season to watch.
But that hasn’t been the case this year. The Phillies, after dropping Friday night’s game to the San Francisco Giants 5-4, have won or lost by one run in 17 of 56 games (30 percent).