Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Carlos Santana hits an RBI single during the third inning against the Atlanta Braves.
The Phillies head into the holiday weekend as one of the surprises of the MLB season so far. At 28-19, they're a half game behind the Braves for the NL East lead and have the third-best record in the entire National League.
Last weekend, we took a look at whether or not the Phillies are as good as their record indicates — spoiler alert: it seems like they are — and we haven't seen anything in the interim to indicate otherwise.
They play host to the Blue Jays this weekend before embarking on a 10-game road trip that isn't going to be easy: four games against the Dodgers, followed by three in San Francisco, and then three against the Cubs in Chicago on the way back home. And if they survive that, they'll be rewarded with six games (two three-game sets) in 10 days against the Brewers, the team with the best record in the NL (31-20).
The next few weeks should provide a nice test for the Phillies, and after this stretch, we may know just a little bit more about how close they actually are to contending.
Over at CBSSports.com, Matt Snyder has been high on the Phillies for a few weeks now. And in his weekly power rankings, he took a look at a trio of NL teams and whether or not that had "staying power." In other words, can we expect to see them this high in the standings when September comes?
And while he has the Braves ahead of the Phillies in his rankings, he wouldn't be surprised if that changes before too long.
After they surprisingly didn't move up in last week's rankings, the Phillies were big risers over at USA TODAY, where they climbed eight spots.
Another nice bump for the Phillies, who were 12th in Alyson's rankings last week.