Your National League Wildcard Leader

At least partially, as the Phillies moved into a tie with the Dodgers for the National League Wild Card. Quite an accomplishment really, with the way this season started and progressed for the Phillies. According to Elias, this is the first time the Phillies have been the Wild Card leader this year, so the team has piqued at the right time.

With their new found pitching skills, this team looks poised to take over the Wild Card race. It won't be easy, but they have a very good chance when you look at the remaining schedule. The Phillies have 10 games left to finish out the season. 3 of the games are with the lowly Nationals, so that presents a schedule advantage. Then there is one makeup game left with the Astros. The difficult part of the schedule comes with the 6 games remaining with the Marlins and the 3 final games of the season in Miami.

The Phillies have shuffled their starting pitching so that Randy Wolf starts against the Astros and Jon Lieber skips pitching against the Marlins in Miami, where he has a 5.86 career ERA. To look even further into the matchups, the Phillies won't be facing either Dontrelle Willis or Anibel Sanchez in the current series, and should avoid facing any of the Astros tough pitchers in that game. Charting out the Marlins rotation, it looks like the Phillies will only have to face either Willis or Sanchez once in Florida. All of this projects out to some nice offensive games for the Phillies, so as long as the starting pitching continues to hold up, things look good.

By contrast, after today's game, the Dodgers have 9 tough games left agains the Diamondbacks and on the road for the final 6 against the Rockies and Giants. Charting out their pitching opponents isn't nearly as favorable as they are likely to face the following hurlers:

Jason Jennings 3.65 ERA
Noah Lowry 1.86 ERA (in August)
Matt Cain 2.80 ERA (since All Star Break)
Jason Schmidt 3.50 ERA

In case the Dodgers end up doing better than the Phillies the rest of the way, the Phillies still have a shot at beating out the Padres who are the current NL West leaders, but only 1/2 game ahead of the Phillies and Dodgers. They also have a tough road the rest of the way, with 4 games left against the Diamondbacks where Brandon Webb should get 2 starts. They also have 3 games against the Pirates and the Cardinals. Take note that the Pirates are on a 5 game winning streak and may not be as easy to beat as they seem. Here's who the Padres are likely to face off against the rest of the way:

Brandon Webb-2 Starts 2.92 ERA (potential Cy-Young)
Chris Carpenter 2.79 ERA (potential Cy-Young)
Jeff Suppan 2.04 ERA (since All Star Break)

It all adds up to a great schedule advantage for the Phillies, and barring a major setback or some exceptional play by the Dodgers and Padres against some great pitchers, we should be seeing the Phillies in the playoffs for the first time since 1993.

There, I've made a bold prediction, superstition be damned! Now, don't let me down.