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Philadelphia Phillies missed golden opportunity to build a lead in NL East

By Dan Parzych

PHILADELPHIA, PA - MAY 27: Carlos Santana #41 of the Philadelphia Phillies is greeted at home plate by Maikel Franco #7 and Nick Williams #5 after scoring a run in the sixth inning during a game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Citizens Bank Park on May 27, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Blue Jays won 5-3. (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - MAY 27: Carlos Santana #41 of the Philadelphia Phillies is greeted at home plate by Maikel Franco #7 and Nick Williams #5 after scoring a run in the sixth inning during a game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Citizens Bank Park on May 27, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Blue Jays won 5-3. (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images) /
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After losing two of three games over the weekend to the Toronto Blue Jays, the Philadelphia Phillies missed out on a golden opportunity when it comes to the NL East standings.

Heading into this past weekend, the Philadelphia Phillies knew they would be in a strong position to potentially move into first place in the NL East ahead of the Atlanta Braves.

While the Phillies were fortunate enough to have a favorable matchup against a Blue Jays team with a record below .500, the Braves would be facing one of the toughest teams in baseball on the road in the Boston Red Sox.

Originally, the plan was that Philadelphia would find a way to cruise through their series against Toronto while receiving the necessary help from Boston when it came to taking care of Atlanta. And even though the Red Sox came through by defeating the Braves for the first two games of the series, it was a surprise to see Atlanta come through with a 7-1 win on Sunday since they were facing Chris Sale, who is one of the best at what he does.

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Had the Red Sox won that final game of the series against the Braves, the Phillies still would have been entering the new week sitting on top of the NL East with a half-game lead. But since Philadelphia ended up losing two of three games at home to Toronto, they have nobody to blame other than themselves for missing out on the opportunity.

After splitting the two first games of the series over the weekend, J.A. Happ got the best of his former team during the series finale on Sunday by striking out eight batter while allowing just two runs in 6.2 innings of work, as the Blue Jays went on to win the game 5-3.

To top it off, the Phillies have a difficult trip over the next few weeks consisting of series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, and Chicago Cubs, meaning wins may be tough to come by.

Obviously, it’s not the end of the world since there is still plenty of baseball left to play with it only being May, and the regular season won’t wrap up until the end of September.

However, if the Phillies continue to play this well, and do in fact find themselves in the hunt for a playoff spot, every win is going to be extremely important.

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So after seeing Philadelphia fail to take advantage of their recent series against Toronto to put them in even better shape for the division standings, it’s easy to understand the frustration. With their upcoming series against the Dodgers getting underway Monday night, let’s hope the Phillies see better results when compared to this past weekend against the Blue Jays.

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