DENVER – A week ago, the Phillies had the worst record in baseball.
After Monday night’s 4-3 win over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, they are riding a six-game winning streak, the longest in the National League (see Instant Replay).
The winning streak, the team’s longest since taking seven in a row in September 2012, has allowed the Phillies to vacate the NL East basement.
Now, don’t go setting up lawn chairs on Broad Street. There will be no parade this fall.
But that doesn’t mean things can’t be fun every once in a while.
And right now, the Phillies are having some fun.
“Obviously there’s a little bit more of an easygoing atmosphere here,” Jonathan Papelbon said after racking up his 10th save to close out Cole Hamels’ third straight win.
“You kind of get the monkey off your back, you know? We had that monkey on our back. That’s not necessarily on our back anymore. I think hopefully we can just go out and continue to play the way we’ve been playing.
“We’re not doing anything special right now. But we’re making less mistakes. Are we playing perfect baseball? No, but we’re making less mistakes and I think that’s a bright spot for us and hopefully we can make less and less mistakes and learn how to play big-league baseball and learn how to win.”
Hamels went 7 1/3 innings and allowed just one run to improve to 4-3 and lower his ERA to 3.24. He has allowed just three runs over 21 1/3 innings in his last three starts.
The Phillies traveled to Denver after completing a weekend sweep of Arizona at home. The flight to Denver, according to one traveler, was the most enjoyable plane ride the team has had since 2011.
Last week, bench coach Larry Bowa had joked about not shaving until the Phillies won a series. The Phils won a series, but now some folks with the team won’t allow Bowa to shave. Baseball people are a superstitious lot.
“It’s been fun,” Hamels said. “I think everybody is really enjoying themselves. You can see personalities a little bit more. When you win there’s that more positive environment and guys can be themselves a little bit more instead of trying to crack down and be all serious 24-7. I think guys are starting to be a little more relaxed.
“We know the guys have the talent. You just want them to feel the confidence that they can be up in the big leagues and produce.”
Both Papelbon and Hamels referred to young players, newcomers to the majors. With each passing day, young players are carving more prominent roles on the club, from Freddy Galvis, hitting .341 and playing well at shortstop, to Maikel Franco, who made an eye-popping defensive play at third Monday night and started the decisive three-run rally with two outs in the sixth inning.
Franco grounded out to the right side of the diamond in his first two at-bats, but that didn’t stop the Rockies from shifting him to the left in the sixth inning. His ground ball to the right side found the hole for a two-out hit. Chase Utley followed with a walk and another young player, Odubel Herrera, doubled home two runs. Carlos Ruiz followed with an RBI single to take a 4-1 lead.
The padding came in handy because both Luis Garcia and Paplebon gave up a run in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, but the Phillies hung on.
And so a week after sitting in the muck of baseball’s worst record, the Phillies are cleaning things up. It’s not going to lead to the playoffs. But it is part of the maturation process of the guys who are going to be around here for a while.
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“You keep grinding and hoping things will turn around and most of the time they do,” Papelbon said. “And if they don’t turn around, it starts to pile on and pile on. I’m just glad it’s not piling on right now. We’re climbing out from underneath the pile right now, but we still have a long way to go.
“We still have a lot of baseball to play and lot of things we have to learn. The biggest is learning to win. It’s an acquired thing -- come to the ballpark and learn to win, put yourself in a position to win every day. A lot of these guys haven’t done that up here.”
The last six days have been a start.