"You get to this point in the year, it's like everything just blends together," said Ryan Howard, who hit his 28th home run of the season and finished 3-for-5 with six RBI. "Sometimes I don't even know what day of the week it is. You get to this point in the season, you're out there, you're playing and everything else kind of goes into blur and whatnot."
You could argue that it ended with more suspense than it should have, provided a six-run rally against a defense full of reserves is the type of thing that keeps you up at nights. And you could dwell on the two negatives that came out of the evening: Jimmy Rollins leaving with hamstring soreness in the third inning (he's listed as day-to-day), and an already overworked Ryan Madson being forced into the game with one out in the ninth inning and a runner on first.
But right up through the seventh inning, when Cole Hamels and his resurgent lineup said their good-nights with a 10-0 lead, this Phillies team looked every bit the National League front-runner they were billed to be so many months ago.
They made contact, tying a season-high with 18 hits, every regular finishing with at least one, five of them with at least two. They drove the ball, Howard hitting a backbreaking three-run home run in the fourth that put them up 7-0. They enjoyed production from the leadoff spot, with Shane Victorino finishing 3-for-6 with three runs and an RBI, and the heart of the order, with Howard and Chase Utley combining to go 5-for-8 with three runs and eight RBI.
And, yet again, they received a standout performance from the slender lefty on the mound, as Hamels held the Marlins to four hits and one walk in seven scoreless innings to improve his scoreless innings streak to a career-best 25.
