An Offensive Statement

Coming into this season and this series, there was no doubt that our pitchers would dominate. The hope was that our offense could keep up. The season-opening sweep against the Astros showed us something slightly different.
Game 1:
Roy Halladay did essentially what was expected of him, aside from the fact that he only pitched 6 innings. And the offense did what I expected of them, providing him with zero run support. With expectations nationally as high as they are, I was all too quick to basically give up on the Phillies in game 1 of the 2011 season. Heading into the 7th, and even into the 9th, I figured we could start worrying about winning the series, let alone sweeping it. Then we saw something that the Phillies don't normally show us: small ball. After 8 innings of barely knowing what a hit was, six singles and 3 runs later gets the Phillies their first win of the season.
Game 2:
The Phils showed us a little bit more small ball here, failing to hit a home run but scoring 9 runs in the process. With Ryan Howard our only legitimate power threat in the lineup (sorry, Raul), this is something that we will probably need to get used to doing. Meanwhile, hopefully we as fans can get used to Cliff Lee's dominance that he showed again Saturday night.
Game 3:
The most exciting part of our first home run of the season? It was a 3-run home run, not the solo shots that Howard and the rest of the roster have gotten so used to over the past few years. We got men on base, and then we drove them in. It's a beautiful thing to see, especially when Roy Oswalt pitches a solid 6 innings and gets us in a great position to finish off a sweep.
If you had told me coming into this series that we would give up 4, 4, and 3 runs, I would put money on (if I were a gambler...) the fact that the Phillies would lose at least one of those games. To me it would sound like solid outings from our starters with little run support and a few extra runs given up by our bullpen. I know this is only the first series of the season, but it looks great having our pitchers and hitters working together to get us wins. Too often in the past we have had just the offense or just the pitching doing their best while their counterparts slept.
Looking very quickly at how people have been doing so far, a few things jump out: Polanco hitting .417, Rollins hitting .500, Howard hitting .538. Obviously those numbers will not continue for 6 more months, but we need them to be consistently hitting if we want to be consistently winning. Like we all know, the pitching is not something we will really need to worry about as long as they are healthy. We will, however, need to keep tabs on how well the top of our lineup is producing. So far, so good.
One thing that scares me: How do we not have a shutout yet?! I thought these pitchers were all supposed to be Cy Young winners/contenders. So much for that. Let's go, guys. Season started now, let's get with the program.
(If you didn't pick up the sarcasm there, it's because I'm dead serious)
(Just kidding)
(But seriously)
Reminder: If you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them as a comment on this post or you can email me at cskoehler5@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from all of you!