Phillies Month in Review: August

By Scott Butler
Updated: September 24, 2010

The Charlie Manuel Affect

Photo of Phillies Mgr. Charlie Manuel by Icon SMI

Charlie Manuel teams play well in August, and 2010 was no different. The Phillies were 18-10 for the month and went from 3.5 games back and in 2nd place to sharing the lead with the Atlanta Braves. Not bad for a team that has been slammed with injuries and plagued with no offense for long portions of the season until this point.

August began as a terrific month for the Phillies. In July, after stumbling mightily with a 1-6 record directly following the all-star break, the Phillies caught on fire and won 8 games in a row before losing two in a row to the Nationals.

The Phils continued their hot streak into August by winning five in a row and 12 of their next 15 games, including a sweep of the Marlins in Miami and a series win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The highlight of that awesome stretch was certainly the win over the Dodgers on 8/12:
Down 9-2 in the eighth, the Phils rallied for four runs in the eighth and four more in the ninth against Jonathan Broxton. Carlos Ruiz capped it off with an RBI single and now has four hits in four at-bats along with two game winning hits against Broxton in his career. It was also the 4th blown save for Broxton against the Phillies in the last four years (two of them in the NLCS).

The Phils followed up that great stretch by splitting the next four games before falling flat on their faces against the Houston Astros. They were swept in four games at Citizens Bank Park against Houston in a series that featured former Phils Brett Myers and JA Happ.

A sweep at the hands of a last place club looked even worse considering the Phils had a 7 game west coast trip looming against the Padres, Dodgers, and Rockies. The Phillies would not hang their heads, though. They landed in San Diego and were able to sweep the National League’s best team en route to a 6-1 road trip that extended into September.

Overall, it was another successful August for Charlie Manuel and the Phillies. Since 2005, Charlie Manuel has an 100-68 record in August. That is a .595 winning percentage, which works out to 96 wins over an entire season. It seems like clockwork with Charlie when we reach the heat of the summer.

Here are the stats for the month of August:

18-10 record
Top win streak: 5
Top losing streak: 4
Home record: 8-8
Road record: 10-2
Series record: 7-1
Began month: 56-48 in 2nd place – 3.5 games behind Braves
Finished month: 74-58 Tied for first with Braves