With tonight’s 4-0 combined pitching gem by the Phils pitchers, the team has either shut out or held their opponent to 1 run in 11 of 87 games this year, roughly 13% of the time. Last year, the Phils did this 23 times at a clip of about 14% of the time. In 2007, the Phils held teams to 1 or 0 runs 10% of the time. So despite all of the pitching woes this year, the Phillies are still getting their fair share of shutdown games from their hurlers, although it hardly feels that way sometimes, doesn’t it?

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After a .423 winning pct. in June, the Phils have absolutely caught on fire with a .750 winning pct. in July. The Phillies have their largest lead in the division at 5 games, and they are 1 game shy of their high water mark in terms of games over .500. On June 4 and June 11, they were 12 games over .500.

The Fightins have held onto first place since May 29th, when they were a .5 game behind the New York Mets.

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Since being benched in late June, Jimmy Rollins is on a tear. His first 2 games back after his benching saw him go 0-8 against the Braves. Since then, however, he is batting a robust .405 with a .519 OBP and a 1.138 OPS. Not surprisingly, the Phils are 9-2 since J-Roll woke up from his season-long slumber.

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The swapping of Chan Ho Park and J.A. Happ has worked out for everyone involved, to say the least.

Since losing his spot in the rotation in mid May, Park has posted a nice 3.28 ERA and 1.32 WHIP while holding opponents to a .314 OBP. He has 29 Ks against 9 BBs during that period.

Happ on the other hand, has taken over, at least for the time being, as the ace of the staff, going 4-0 in 10 starts since joining the rotation on May 23rd. Happ’s ERA during that time is 3.03 and a .310 OBP.

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Phillies pitchers are on pace to give up a mind numbing 232 home runs this year, a rate of roughly 1.5 homers per game. Last year, Phils pitching served up 160 long balls – less than 1 per game. So for every 2 games the Phillies play, they are giving up an extra homer this year than last.

Part of the reason the Phils are 11 games over .500 with a nice lead in the division is that their sluggers are out-homering what the pitchers give up. Through tonight’s game, Phillies hitters have hit 125 homers, good for 1st in the National League.

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Our old pal Jim Thome had better retire soon. Otherwise he’s going to be the all-time leader in career strikeouts. Currently, Gentleman Jim is 3rd all-time with 2261 Ks. He is just 45 strikeouts behind Sammy Sosa for second place all-time and 336 behind Reggie Jackson. If Thome maintains his pace of about 160 Ks per season, he’ll break the record sometime late in 2011.

Although a huge number of career strikeouts is hardly the end of the world, as 4 of the top 10 all-time whiffers also have a nice plaque hanging in the Hall of Fame Gallery at Cooperstown (Jackson, Willie Stargell, Michael Jack Schmidt and Tony Perez).