Runs? Where we're going, we don't need runs.

The Phillies scored 41 runs in the first five games. Much as we’d all like it to, that sort of torrid pace won’t last, and today was easily the worst showing of this young season for the lineup. Jimmy led off with a homer, Chooch brought home a run on a groundout in the second, and that was it.

They picked a good time to sputter a bit, though, considering Doc was on the mound. He was his usual awesome self, allowing only an unearned run in what should be the first of many complete games of his Phillies career. 111 pitches, 83 for strikes; eight strikeouts, no walks, seven singles. Between the sixth and seventh innings, he had five runners on with no outs, and allowed just one to score. I hesitate to use the word “clutch” because it’s so horribly applied by most people, but that’s mighty impressive. No runner reached second base in any other inning, and the Zombie Phillies Astros got a well-deserved bromming. They’re 0-6 for the first time since 1983.

So, the Phils are off to their best start since 1993, and on the road, no less; but for a bad inning by Kyle Kendrick, they’d be undefeated. Nobody’s within 10 runs of their MLB-leading plus-25 run differential. With another series against the lowly Nats beginning tomorrow with the home opener (which certain bloggers will be tailgating), the good times figure to keep on rolling.

Speaking of the Nats, they just took two of three from the Mets, beating Johan Santana this afternoon. If the Flyers can pull out a win against the Rangers, we can leave New York even more demoralized. Here’s hoping, even though the Flyers kind of suck and have no shot at doing anything in the playoffs.

Who really cares, though? It’s baseball season, and the Phillies are off to a great start for a change. As bad as the Nats and Astros are, we should still be enjoying the utter dominance our team is exerting in the early going.

We play the Mets for the first time at the end of the month. Things keep going the way they are, we might have a double digit lead on them by the end of that series. Not that they’re in any way a threat to us. It’s just fun to see Mets fans’ dreams crushed over and over again.

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