I've got Sunshine...

On a cloudy day.

It is rainy here, but sunny in the hearts of Phillies fans everywhere.

As you can tell by this awful post title, we have sunshine here at continued success even with the awful weather in the Philadelphia area this week and its based solely on the Fightin’ Phils domination of the Braves. The Phils have absolutely demolished the overmatched Braves this week and if this is any indication of a series that could take place in October, the Braves might as well stay home and let their pitchers rest for next year. Derek Lowe can get back to drinking two saucy mojitos and then driving his baby blue Prius home before getting pulled over for being hammered. His wonderful pitching coach, Roger McDowell, will conversely be cursing and swearing at young kids while making insensitive discriminatory remarks until he gets arrested for exposing himself in a local community center. Let’s not give all the credit to the Braves though, there have been some amazing things that have been clicking for the boys of summer through the first couple games of the series. Let’s break down those amazing things that have happened:

Vance Worley brings the sunshine to the park.

"My mom always tells me how much my glowing smile makes her happy."

-       Thanks to another great pitching performance, Vance Vance Revolution (Vanimal, Goggles and whatever well deserved nicknames you want to give him) has made yet another strong showing in favor of becoming NL ROY. Now, it is almost a sure thing that Craig Kimbrel will win it because of his save totals, but Vance has been almost as good in an extremely important role for this Phillies pitching staff. The Phillies have won the last 14 games that Vanimal has started, that is the longest streak since the St. Louis Cardinals won 17 straight starts by Chris Carpenter in 2005, and for the Phillies, it is the longest streak since Steve Carlton’s 15 straight back in 1972. His ERA for the season is 2.85 and his WHIP ((Walks + Hits)/Innings pitches) is an astoundingly low 1.17. To put that in perspective, his WHIP is good enough to put him at 10^th best in the NL, and 24^th in all of MLB while his ERA is ranked 8^th best in the NL and 13^th in MLB. Those are outstanding numbers for a rookie 23 year old who has gone from no expectations in the beginning of the year to being expected to pitch almost a shutout every single time out. His transformation came full circle when he faced the Braves on Tuesday night and looked like a mature pitcher who got out of his jams on the mound while only giving up 2 runs over 6 innings without his best stuff. He has shown that if needed, he is ready to take his game to the next level in October.

Lee provides rain on Braves’ parade.

(No comment needed)

-       Like our first report, Lee has been almost unhittable as Worley has throughout much of the season, but especially as of late. Lee has the ridiculous stats that you probably know about: 3^rd in the NL in ERA (2.47) and WHIP (1.03) and also 2^nd in the NL in SO (204). Along with this, have been his amazing months of June and August. In June, his ERA was an amazing 0.21 and in August it was a measly 0.45. Monday night was just a prime example of what Lee does best. He went for another complete game shut out with an overwhelming performance. His stuff was so crisp he could put the ball wherever he needed to get the next out. He has looked so good that he has actually surpassed Roy Halladay on a lot of experts’ NL Cy Young award watch list. If he closes out the season the way he started it, we could see an NL Cy Young and a World Series MVP in his near future.

The Phillies offense brings the thunder and lightning to Braves pitching.

Offense is looking "up"

-       The bats have come alive since Hunter Pence has joined the team, and although too many people complained about them before that, it has only gotten better. At this point in the season, they are 12^th in the league in runs scored, 15^th in batting average, 10^th in on base percentage and 14^th in slugging percentage. The numbers may not be the highest, but they are far better than people are making them out to be and when your pitching is THIS good, you don’t need 10 runs a game, do you? Aside from this, they have dominated a very good pitching staff of the Atlanta Braves over the past couple nights. Howard is still having a monster year even though everyone continues to get on the Big Piece’s back about his batting average. He has still hit 31 HRs and 108 RBIs (1^st in the NL) to this point in the year. Ibanez is in one of his upward swings in which he is so hot, you can call him 9-1-1 sauce on buffalo wings. Victorino is having an MVP type season, Utley is rounding back into form, and Chooch is having an amazing year that we all know will only get better in October when he becomes his superhero alter ego Senor Octubre. The lineup is now balanced with Pence and the availability of Johnny May off the bench when needed versus a left handed pitcher, and they are looking nowhere but up over the last couple months of the season. As the weather continues to be cold, look for these bats to remain hot (caliente para Senor Octubre) throughout the playoffs.