As the never-ending defeats fade with the rest of May, the dark cloud hovering over the Philadelphia Phillies’ dugout continues to dissipate into the stratosphere.

Lazarus-like Elixir:

Regarding consistency, nothing even remotely suggests a permanent state of positive or negative outcomes because it’s always a mixture of both.

If a team is average defensively, the recipe for winning is in three parts and requires at least two ingredients to be good and all three for excellence. In other words, two on any given night can keep you on the edge of your seat and be enjoyable. But those two parts can vary every day. To be victorious, the Phillies need starters to keep their teammates in the game, enough offense depending on the competition and/or hurlers to protect their advantage in the eighth and ninth innings.

Even though the losing began before May 1, it continued through June 2. And those defeats revealed many contests where only one aspect worked and two did not. But if they produced enough runs, the starters gave up more or the relievers failed to hold the lead. Or the hitters provided no run support for the pitchers. Therefore, you can be triumphant with three parts, you can win or lose with two ingredients, but rarely will you be successful with just one.

After Joaquin Benoit complained about a lack of set roles, the first signs of renewed life sprouted with relievers putting up zeroes for four frames or more almost daily. The pattern formed was Edubray Ramos in the sixth, Pat Neshek for the seventh, Benoit in the eighth and Hector Neris to close the ninth.

In June, Neris again began struggling with his splitter. He closed out one victory only after a Giants batter angered and motivated him. Then, the red and white needed one pitch from Jeanmar Gomez to induce a game-ending grounder for a save because Neris couldn’t finish off the win. And, lastly, Mackanin pulled Neris after two singles in Atlanta and called on Neshek to preserve the victory. Ergo, one way or the other.