Philadelphia Phillies

The endless string of opinions and predictions after Jayson Werth departed from Philadelphia last December were finally given some answers Tuesday night. In the first meeting between the Phillies and their former right fielder, Werth and his Washington Nationals got the upper hand and bested the first place Phils, 7-4. 

There were many empty seats at Nationals Park as the Philadelphia Phillies arrived in D.C. to begin their first series with the Washington Nationals this season.

The absence of fans wasn't due to an uninteresting matchup, but the threat of rain, even though the game did start on time.

Tonight the Phillies will square off against former teammate and fan favorite Jayson Werth. On their way back home to Philadelphia, they stop off in the nation’s capital for a three-game set against the annual basement dwellers in the National League East, who shocked the baseball world last December by inking Werth to a mammoth contract.

So far this season, the Philadelphia Phillies have been good. Great, in fact. For some people, this isn't a surprise. After all, they have some of the best starting pitchers in the league. They also have some great hitters. This was all expected. So why am I writing this article?

Much has been made out of Jayson Werth's offseason departure from the Phillies after accepting a huge $126 million, 7-year deal from the Nationals. 

On Tuesday night, Werth will face his former team for the first time as the Phillies travel to D.C. for a three-game series.

Phillies: 7-2, first in NL East

Nationals: 4-5, third in NL East (three games behind Phillies)

Phillies Preview

After all of the preseason hype, largely due to the return of Cliff Lee, the Philadelphia Phillies have come out red hot in early April like a fox escaping a forest fire.

The Phils' are off to a 7-2 start, capped off by 2-1 series win over the Atlanta Braves who are thought to be their main competition in the NL East.

The absence of Jayson Werth, Chase Utley and Brad Lidge from the Phillies left plenty of cause for concern at the beginning of the season.

Losing the team’s No. 3 and No. 5 hitters and the closer created a scenario where many hoped that the Phillies would be able to hang on until Utley and Lidge returned.

But instead of merely surviving, the Phillies, with a 7-2 record, are thriving.

The Phantastic Phour, R2C2, The Four Horsemen, The Foureign Legion...I could go on. The Philladelphia Phillies starting rotation of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels created massive amounts of speculation this winter—could they be the greatest rotation ever assembled?

So, after two turns each, have they lived up to the hype?

It's still early, but for the first time all season the Phillies finally saw some decent pitching.

The Phils took a quick 3-0 lead in Game One, but Cliff Lee struggled while Tim Hudson settled down.  Atlanta took the first game 6-3.

In Game Two, Carlos Ruiz came off the bench and contributed with a grand slam and five RBI en route to a 10-2 rout for Philly.