Scenes replaying themselves over and over

Like the turning of leaves or the first biting winter wind in November, you can mark your calendar by the Phillies' annual midseason surge. They won their fourth straight tonight, 4-3 over the Nationals, to keep pace in the NL East and wild card races.

Sometimes it's easy to get trapped in generalizations about teams -- "Team X never hits well against left-handed starting pitching" or Team Y is awful late in games with runners on base" -- and many times, reality does not bear out these statements. But in the case of accusations that the Phillies always play just well enough to get your hopes up -- and then dash them -- they're all true. With the exception of 2002, the Phillies have been like the bravest geeks at a high school dance -- just when they think they've mustered enough courage to rise from their chair in the shadows and ask their dream girl out on the floor, they squash their own hopes with self-doubt and insecurity. They truly are their own worst enemy.

One of these years, the scene may play out differently for the Phillies. But little that we've seen over the first 99 games suggests it will be 2007.