Phillies winning streak is no fluke

  We're getting into the 'dog days' of summer soon, and with Father's Day this weekend, there is no better a time for the Phillies to have risen from their terrible losing streak of the past month. The team has quietly strung together 3 wins in a row now, and though they are still 3.5 GB out of first place it is still good to see what has happened in only a short time.

 The Phils 3-4-5 hitters have snapped out of their pre-summer malaise just in time for this home stand against the Minnesota Twins. Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Jason Werth went 7-11 at the plate combined. Howard and Werth also have been raising their batting averages steadily over the last week.

 The Minnesota Twins have never played the Phillies in Interleague play, even though this is the 14th season that Interleague play has been in existence. The Phillies vs. American League teams will continue with the Cleveland Indians in the next series and then finish up with Toronto. Toronto's series was supposed to be in Canada, but with the Economic Summit being held in Toronto, it was better for all involved to move the series to Philadelphia.

 It will be Cole Hamels (6-5) (3.74 ERA) this afternoon for the Phillies and here is how he has done so far this year:

Rk	Date	Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	IP	BB	SO	ERA
1	Apr 7	PHI	@	WSN	W,8-4	GS-5	W(1-0)	5.0	4	5	3.60
2	Apr 12	PHI		WSN	W,7-4	GS-6	W(2-0)	5.2	1	6	5.06
3	Apr 18	PHI		FLA	L,0-2	GS-9	L(2-1)	8.0	0	8	3.86
4	Apr 23	PHI	@	ARI	L,4-7	GS-6	L(2-2)	6.0	1	7	5.11
5	Apr 28	PHI	@	SFG	W,7-6	GS-6		6.0	4	10	5.28
May		Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	IP	BB	SO	ERA
6	May 4	PHI		STL	W,2-1	GS-9		8.0	2	8	4.42
7	May 9	PHI		ATL	W,5-3	GS-5	W(3-2)	5.0	4	5	4.53
8	May 16	PHI	@	MIL	W,4-2	GS-7	W(4-2)	6.2	3	3	4.29
9	May 21	PHI		BOS	W,5-1	GS-7	W(5-2)	7.0	1	8	3.92
10	May 27	PHI	@	NYM	L,0-3	GS-7	L(5-3)	6.1	1	3	3.82
June		Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	IP	BB	SO	ERA
11	Jun 1	PHI	@	ATL	L,3-7	GS-1	L(5-4)	0.2	1	1	4.20
12	Jun 7	PHI		SDP	L,1-3	GS-8	L(5-5)	8.0	2	6	3.98
13	Jun 13	PHI	@	BOS	W,5-3	GS-7	W(6-5)	7.0	2	8	3.74
		PHI						79.1	27	78	3.74

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/19/2010.