Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: The Phillies, who should be running away with this putrid division, reclaimed first place in the NL East last night—again—from the hated Mets—again—coming back from 7-0 to win 8-7 in 13 innings.

Is playing catch-up to the Mets is the only thing that motivates this team?

After a west coast trip that couldn’t have gone any worse (getting swept by the Dodgers and Jimmy Rollins unfortunate comments), the Phillies bowed out of first place for the third time this summer. They followed that up by returning the favor to the Dodgers at home and finally scoring some runs. Then the proximity of the Mets, both in the standings and their imminent arrival at the Safe-Deposit Box, must have awakened J-Roll from his slumber. He finally quit trying to hit 30 home runs every at-bat and went 8-for-10 (including every kind of hit there is to get) with three stolen bases and five RBI over the last two games.

Everything points to a loss tonight, unfortunately. We’ve seen pitchers far less talented than Johan Santana baffle this streaky lineup. Kyle Kendrick will have to pitch one of his best games of the year and keep the game close to force the Mets to go to their bullpen. Otherwise, the Phillies may find themselves trailing the Mets once more.

Then again, maybe that’s exactly what they need to keep them motivated before heading to Chicago to face the owners of Major League Baseball’s best record, the Cubs.

I’ve been informed of a rather amusing event taking place at the Safe-Deposit Box during this week’s series with the Nationals: Campaign Cheer!

I don’t know how much of this is sarcasm and how much is genuine desire to try and pull the Phillies out of their funk with some positive vibes; but I have a feeling that if my fellow bloggers actually pull this off, every cheer might come across as the Philly version of the Bronx variety. In any event, I don’t think cheering for everything will actually help the team break out of its slump, and maybe that in itself would prove a point to Rollins & Co.

See We Should Be GMs for more info on Campaign Cheer!

I’m afraid the only thing that might work is firing someone who isn’t at fault: Milt Thompson. Sometimes someone has to be the sacrificial lamb in circumstances like this, and saying to the team, “look what your lousy hitting did, it got a good guy fired,” can often spark something.

I don’t know what else they can do at this point. It might not happen, but don’t be surprised if it does. Teams don’t usually win a series when they’re outscored 9-3. That’s just dumb luck, and we all know there isn’t a lot of that to go around in Philadelphia sports.

I went to Philadelphia this week while the Phillies went to Los Angeles, and we both had rough trips.

It couldn’t have gone any worse for the Fightins, a misnomer if there ever was one. Twice I went to bed while dozing off in the middle innings of Tuesday and Wednesday night’s games (couldn’t adjust to east coast time), and twice I woke up the next morning to find they had blown healthy leads on the way to a four-game sweep and another demotion from first place.

They finally have decent pitching and now no one can hit with any consistency. They don’t give off the same vibe of urgency and character that they did before interleague play this year or the past two seasons. And now Jimmy Rollins, an MVP and team leader, is taking out his frustrations on the worst possible target—the fans—by correctly pointing out our behavior patterns but mislabeling it as “front running.”

What happened to this team, and when did it happen? Maybe it no longer matters. Whatever is happening to Charlie Manuel’s ball club, he’s right about one thing: they can either stand up and be counted as men or start reserving their October tee times. Their margin for error has shrunk to nil.

Scott Eyre has a career batting average of .154, so I’m not real sure how he’s going to help the Phillies much. Even if you’re in the camp that believes pitching remains a weak point on the team, Eyre doesn’t offer much help there either.

But it matters not—this team can’t hit anymore.

The Phillies were just shut out for the seventh time this season, which is more than the previous two seasons combined. Since the start of interleague play in mid-June, when they enjoyed their largest division lead, the Phillies have averaged 4.2 runs per game. Before that they were averaging 5.4 runs. That may be good by San Francisco Giants or Washington Nationals standards, but not by Philadelphia Phillies standards, a team built to bury their opponents under a barrage of runs.

Getting their hides tanned by the Red Sox and Angels did something to the collective psyche of this team. They’ve never been the same since, playing with little urgency or energy compared to the fight they showed last year. Jimmy Rollins has been anything but a catalyst, on or off the field, and the whole offense (except Ryan Howard, who has steadily improve every stat except Ks) seems to be in a funk from which they are unable to extricate themselves.

The good news is they are still in first place thanks to pitching that’s better than most people think it is, and they’re starting a 17-game stretch against teams that aren’t so good—the kind of teams they’ve actually beaten like they’re supposed to. With any luck they can pad their lead a little before running into the Mets and Cubs at the end of the month.

If the offense doesn’t snap out of it, they’re going to need all the space they can get.

Brad Lidge made it a lot more complicated than it had to be last night, coming within one batter of his arch nemesis, Albert Pujols, before escaping a bases-loaded jam and giving the Phillies a much needed win on a day when both their division rivals lost.

Brett Myers overcame another lagging fastball and more control issues and lived to pitch another day. Chase Utley is mostly hitting the ball hard again (thank goodness), Ryan Howard continues his slow warm-up (it’s only August after all) and Shane Victorino, who thankfully was not traded, is swinging a very hot bat.

Everything is set up perfectly for their homestand against the Fish and Pirates. It’s time to pad that two-and-a-half game lead.