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Rich Hofmann: It's a defining week for Phillies

IT SEEMS crazy on its face, 81 games away from the end, a distance still measured in miles. After all, it was only 3 years ago that the Phillies made up a seven-game deficit with 17 games left in the season. The notion that anything in the first week of July is critical defies both baseball history and major league mathematics.

Greg Dobbs' home run in the sixth inning lifted the Phillies' spirits. (Ron Cortes/Staff Photographer)
Greg Dobbs' home run in the sixth inning lifted the Phillies' spirits. (Ron Cortes/Staff Photographer)Read more

IT SEEMS crazy on its face, 81 games away from the end, a distance still measured in miles. After all, it was only 3 years ago that the Phillies made up a seven-game deficit with 17 games left in the season. The notion that anything in the first week of July is critical defies both baseball history and major league mathematics.

Still, the notion lingered there in the thick summer air. The Braves' lead was five games over the Phillies as the oven door opened at Citizens Bank Park for the first of three straight nights. After that comes a weekend series against the Fighting Vottos from Cincinnati.

Odd as it sounds, a performance this week at either extreme, be it good or bad, could very well define the Phillies conversation for the next 3 months, if not the ultimate result.

One game in, one Roy Halladay start, one win. Halladay was brought here for nights such as last night, a 3-1 victory in which he pitched a complete game, allowed five hits and struck out seven. Still, it was Greg Dobbs - subbing at third base for the injured Placido Polanco - who continued his sudden reversal of a down-spiraling batting slump with a two-run homer against the Braves, and then talked about the importance of times like these.

"We've dealt with some things but I think we've dealt with them in the right way," Dobbs said. "We're not going to fold up our tent . . . We're going to compete. We always do."

The home run was Dobbs' first in 72 at-bats. His batting average is still only .184. It was a terrible slump that saw the Phillies send him to Triple A just so he could get some regular at-bats. He was going badly enough that you wondered how long the Phillies would be able to stick with him as Polanco waits for his elbow to heal. But it has come around in the last couple of games. Asked how much the regular at-bats have helped, manager Charlie Manuel said, "About 10,000 percent."

Dobbs had the homer. Third-string catcher Dane Sardinha caught the Braves' Gregor Blanco stealing in the eighth inning. Backup second baseman Wilson Valdez turned a nice doubleplay in the seventh. Manuel pointed to all of those contributions from the people filling in for Polanco, Carlos Ruiz and Chase Utley, and talked about how all of those things matter.

But the truth is, the Phillies are kind of hanging on here. At the midway point of the season, their 43-38 record is exactly what it was the last 2 years. They are not playing all that badly, given their injury situation, given everything, even if Manuel says, "We have to play much better."

The problem is that, in the last two seasons, 43-38 at the halfway point saw the Phillies in first place, not trailing the Braves by four games and the Mets by two. The problem is that the division has gotten better and the Phillies had better recognize that fact. Even if they are destined to tread water here for a little while as they work without three starting players, two important bullpen pieces (Ryan Madson and Chad Durbin) and a presumed starting-rotation pitcher (J.A. Happ), they need to tread water with some consistency.

One bad week, especially this one, could toss them an anchor with which they might struggle for 2 months.

"We've been through times like this," Dobbs said. " . . . We've been tried and tested. If we just stay positive and stay within ourselves, we'll pick each other up as much as we can. We come ready to play every day. We've been tried and tested.

"We know we have it in us. We know we can fight and get through these stretches."

Still, for the people who think that the Phillies always hit better in the second half of the season, it really isn't true. Yes, they hit like crazy down the stretch in 2007 when they overtook the choking Mets. But in 2008 and 2009, they hit better in the first halves of both seasons than they did in the second halves. In both of those years, it really was starting pitching in the second half that won the thing.

And now, halfway through 2010, nothing has yet been defined. That is all still to come. But in this last week before the All-Star break, as the Phillies work to patch holes all over, the best thing to do might be to measure the level of urgency in their play. Even if it's only July, it's getting to be that time.

Send e-mail to

hofmanr@phillynews.com, or read his blog, The Idle Rich, at

http://go.philly.com/theidlerich. For recent columns go to

http://go.philly.com/hofmann.