How Sweep it Is

The Phillies (92-61) completed a three game sweep of the Atlanta Braves last night which placed Philadelphia six games in front of Atlanta, their biggest lead in the division this season and it was the Phils first home sweep of the Braves since 2001.

Last night we saw another impressive performance from Roy Oswalt who did what he has done in his entire stint as a Phil and that's dominate and put the team in a great position to win. The Phillies are 10-1 when Oswalt is on the mound for the team.

This Atlanta series was big for a multitude of reasons,

1) It proves definitely who the best team in the NL East was as the Braves are now six games back with nine to play and are all but out of the divisional race.

2) The bullpen has been better as of late and it shined in this series as all three games showed that the Phillies now have a reliable back end with Madson once again impressing with his electric stuff and Brad Lidge has converted nine saves in a row and has only given up four hits in those save opportunities.

Lidge, as cliche as it sounds, has looked like the '08 version of Lidge and that's huge for the Phillies who last year has to go into the postseason with a half baked closer.

3)  We got a chance to see just how good the three aces look in succession, the three pitched 22 innings in this series and only gave up four earned runs and picked up for wins in the process. There was something gratifying to see that in every game in that series, if you are a Phillies fan, you had to be confident with who was on the mound and the result matched teh expectation and that doesn't happen often in baseball.

The trio of Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt is undefeated in September which is stunning and the team is 18-3 in September, where's the drama?

In all honesty, this has been the most remarkable run from a Phillies team that I've ever seen and this team is already being proclaimed as manager Charlie Manuel's best team and it just might be as in previous years, this team was never considered the best team in baseball going into the postseason and now they very will could be.

In the next couple of weeks, the conversation will change from how good we are to how quickly and easily will we win the World Series. For once, the Phillies will be considered a definite favorite and it will be interesting to see how the dynamic changes for a team that has always been considered good to now being a team that considered the best, and as a fan of the team I'll take it.

Photo Courtesy the Associated Press