Photo courtesy of Phillies.com.

The Philadelphia Phillies begin their final home stand of the season this afternoon with a double-header against the Florida Marlins. Today’s games come after the Phillies clinched a playoff spot for the fifth straight year last night in Houston. Today’s twin billing will be followed by two four-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals to wrap up the year at home. These will be the ninth and tenth four-game series of the season (eight were originally scheduled and two are the result of rescheduled games) for the Phillies and they have the distinction of having won all of the four-gamers they’ve played to date including three sweeps (Padres, Marlins, Reds). It’s one of many remarkable statistics for the team in 2011.

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The Phillies begin an epic stretch of 33 games in 31 days to close out the 2011 season tonight in Cincinnati. That means no days off, 20 road games including three series against the NL Central, two day/night doubleheaders against the Marlins and Nationals respectively, and six more head to head games (the exact number of games by which they lead the NL East) with the second place Braves during that time. Admittedly, I missed baseball over the weekend, but this seems excessive.

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Photo courtesy of Phillies.com

The 2011 Phillies season has been noteworthy for many reasons. June alone saw pitcher Cliff Lee put up historic numbers in his five starts, but a make-up game leading to four Phillies wins in under 48 hours during that stretch really caught my attention. The team is in the midst of another scheduling oddity as they make their third of four straight one o’clock starts today at 1:07PM.

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This Klondike "Moment of Glory" courtesy of Phillies.com

The Philadelphia Phillies had a fantastic game last night behind another complete game shut out from Cliff Lee. The win came against the Boston Red Sox, one of the teams the Phillies have recently been vying with for the best record in baseball. Some are touting the series as a preview of this year’s World Series, but at the midway point of the season it may be a little early to say those kinds of things. Regardless, it’s a great inter-league matchup and my excitement over it led me to sports radio and a truly awful example of its target marketing.

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Photo courtesy of Phillies.com.

I don’t know that this happens very often in Major League Baseball, but with a postponed game from April 16th that was made up yesterday afternoon and a day game today, the Philadelphia Phillies just won their fourth game in under 48 hours. Factoring in an hour and twenty-minute rain delay before the start of Tuesday’s game and the speedy two-hour and twenty-one minute game behind Cliff Lee today (a complete game shut out, by the way), the Phillies actually picked up four wins in forty-three hours and one minute.

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