After publicly declaring themselves out of playoff contention at least twice this summer, the Philadelphia Rebels have fought back and held the wild-card lead for weeks…and now they’re on the brink of overtaking St. Francis for the Central Division lead.
Maybe the many trade shakeups got rid of a clubhouse cancer; maybe the players were upset at owner Ron Melkonian’s lack of faith in their talent and decided to play their best. Whatever the motivation, the notoriously fickle Philly fans have forgotten this team is destined for Detroit after the season.
The Rebels are on a five-game winning streak, all at home, and they are selling out a raucous Citizens Bank Ballpark night-after-night. The most recent series allowed fans to break out the brooms, as Max Scherzer, Cliff Lee and Alexi Ogando were masterful in one-run victories to sweep defending division champ Casselton out of playoff contention.
Scherzer got the party started on September 24. While he didn’t earn the win, the hard thrower showed a rare flash of great control in striking out 10 over seven innings against no walks. The Rebels actually trailed into the bottom of the ninth inning, but Andre Ethier hit one just over the right-field wall with a man aboard to steal away the victory.
Next to stymie the Horned Toad offense was Lee in an eight-inning, three-hit performance with nine K’s. J.J. Putz made it interesting by allowing a long Brandon Phillips two-run home run in the top of the ninth, but Philadelphia still had a one-run advantage and Putz didn’t completely cough it up. Lee earned his 18th win, which is good for second in BARB.
Not to be outdone, recent acquisition Ogando struck out 10 over seven innings with just three hits and two walks to complete the sweep. The only run he allowed was a solo shot off the big bat of Jim Thome, but solo homers from Torii Hunter and Matt Wieters off of John Danks gave the Rebels a 2-1, series-ending victory.
With the sweep (and two wins before that over Sin City), Philadelphia stands three games up in the wild card and, incredibly, just one back in the division with five straight games in Las Vegas (due to a scheduling quirk) coming up.
On the other side of the coin, Scott Hatfield’s squad has to travel to Brooklyn for five games. The Friars are struggling after leading the division (quite comfortably at times) for most of the summer. The Moabs are already fighting for their playoff hopes (seven games back in the East and four in the wild card), so that promises to be an intriguing battle.
Brooklyn is also gaining hope from division-leading Frostbite Falls’ annual late-season swoon. The Flying Squirrels traditionally play sub-.500 ball over their final 15 games. That includes the season of their last World Championship, 2008. Frostbite was 4-6 over the last 10 and 7-8 in the last 15 games before immediately getting hot in the playoffs and taking the title. Many of those games, including the final regular-season game in 2007, were losses to archrival Pottsylvania. And who does Frostbite play in the upcoming five-game series? Those same Creepers, this time with Stephen Strasburg and a hot (read below) Jeremy Hellickson on the mound.
In other BARB action:
POTTSYLVANIA 6, LOS ANGELES 0
WP: Jeremy Hellickson (13-11, 3.84)
LP: Dan Haren (14-11, 4.85)
Jeremy Hellickson, in easily his best performance in BARB, carried a perfect game into the seventh and a no-hitter into the eighth inning before settling for a two-hit shutout. After setting down the first 19 hitters in order, Hellickson somehow walked Travis Snider. He then got three more outs in a row before Dexter Fowler’s single broke up the no-no with one out in the eighth. Hellickson finished with two walks and five strikeouts, and he was supported by another budding star: Desmond Jennings drove in three on two hits (including a home run) and raised his average to .349 in 83 at-bats.
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