A reason to believe?

Never in an eon did I think I would be blogging about the Phillies during my vacation (Ocean City, N.J.) but here I am. In my last post, which was about a month ago, I asked which team would matter more -- the Phillies or the Eagles -- four weeks hence. The answer, after a stunning four-game sweep of the Mets at Citizens Bank Park, is the Phillies.

They seemed dead after Brett Myers served up two longballs in a 4-3 loss to the Padres on Saturday. The season was over. Bring on football.

Five wins later, they're very much in both the NL East and wild-card races with a month to play. Ryan Howard and Chase Utley both have been on the DL. Only three-fifths of the original starting rotation -- Cole Hamels, Adam Eaton and Jamie Moyer -- is still intact (and Eaton has been a bust and Moyer shaky to say the least). Pat Burrell outdid even himself during a moribund April, May and June.

And there have been more obstacles: an at-times disastrous bullpen, a dearth of timely hitting, putrid baserunning (mostly thanks to the work of Steve Smith), failure to move runners and a congenital fear of bunting.

Yet through all that, they're right in the thick of it. After Tadahito Iguchi scampered home yesterday with the winning run, I drifted back to Tug McGraw's timeless slogan, "Ya Gotta Believe!" But do I really believe a team with this many flaws can win a division against a Mets team stacked with superior talent? I'm still not convinced.