Expecting perfection isn't always easy

I've heard it said that every dog has its day. Never knew exactly what this meant but the best I can chalk it up to is that sometimes even the underdog wins because it has to get its day too. I guess this is kind of like any given Sunday in football. At any time, any team can win and any team can lose. This is what happened to the Phillies and Roy Halladay last night.

Now I'm not saying the Diamondbacks are an underdog, they lead the NL West after all, but what I am saying is that any team going against the Phillies aren't going to be favored. The Phillies have the best record in baseball and three of baseball's best pitchers. Of course they are going to be expected to win every game, at the very least all of Doc's starts.

But newsflash! The Phillies aren't perfect and neither is Doc. I know I know, he was in fact perfect during that one game against the Marlins next year but that is the exception not the norm.

In a way Doc's perfect game is now a problem for us Phillies Phans. Sure it was and is a wonderful accomplishment for him and the team for being a part of it, but as Phans we see him as untouchable and assume he should be perfect all the time. We watch his starts and sigh when he gives up a hit. We cringe when he walks a batter or puts runners on. We turn away when he gives up just one run in eight innings pitched. We look at his 15-5 record and wish and believe it should be 20-0.

When it comes to Doc we can't win. He'll pitch a nine inning shutout and we wonder why he gave up more than 3 hits. He pitches an eight inning game, only gives up two runs, gets the loss and we chalk it up to a bad day. The truth is eight innings of two run ball is a pretty darn good start for any pitcher. We expect perfection and when he isn't perfect we don't look at the start for what it is, we question if he is still the Doc we remember.

Last night was no different. Sure Doc gave up three runs and ended up losing the game but going nine innings and only giving up three runs, well I'd take that from any pitcher any day. The problem is when Doc pitches like that we expect more because we can't get that image of him pitching the Marlins 27 up, 27 down out of our heads.

The sooner we learn to forget the perfect game, the sooner we will be able to watch Doc's starts and to marvel at his pitching even when he isn't perfect.

There are 162 games in a season and the Phils aren't going to win them all, it wouldn't be baseball if that happened. A team's ability isn't determined by the amount of wins, it is by the ability to bounce back from tough losses like last night; losses that we make even tougher because of our expectations.

Before 2008, we could watch the Phils without high expectations and although the teams weren't as good, we definitely had less heart palpitations after losses. Its time to get back to watching the Phils like this and without expectations because that is the best way to enjoy Phils baseball.

So every dog has its day and yesterday the Diamondbacks had theirs. But in baseball there is always another game, another chance. Tonight its time for the Phils to have theirs!