"It's been said many times a baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint.

For a contender, though, there may be junctures during the marathon where he or she better pick up the pace before the road becomes a long, steep incline.

For the Phillies, that juncture came July 20, when they fell seven games behind Atlanta in the NL East. Last season, the Phillies were never more than 51/2 games off the pace, and that was on April 19, so only the most panicky among their followers were concerned.

If the Phillies return to postseason play for the fourth consecutive season, it's likely their recent surge, when they quickly carved their seven-game deficit down to 21/2 games, will be considered a turning point. The eight-game winning streak that ended Friday in Washington, the nine-wins-in-11-games uprising they'll take into Tuesday's game at Florida, will be the juncture where they picked up the pace.

If so, much of the credit should go to two players who broke out of prolonged slumps - Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth.

During the eight-game winning streak, Ibanez batted .444 (12 for 27) with eight RBIs, and Werth hit .370 (10 for 27) with five RBIs. The two outfielders helped ease the burden on Ryan Howard and mitigate the impact the prolonged loss of Chase Utley has had.

Ibanez and Werth continued their contributions even though the Phillies lost two of three against the Nationals. Ibanez, who missed Sunday's game with a sore left wrist from an attempt at a diving catch Saturday, went 3 for 8 with two RBIs, and Werth was 6 for 12 with two RBIs.

Ibanez is on a 10-game hitting streak and has hit .389 with nine RBIs since the all-star break. He downplayed the wrist injury - X-rays were negative - and that's not unusual. But he did hit a home run after taking his tumble in the outfield, which suggests it's nothing more than soreness.

He has thrived in the third spot of the batting order, which is reserved for the injured Utley. When he's hitting third, his average is .371 (26 for 70) with 13 RBIs and 17 runs scored. Ibanez said his current streak has no correlation to batting third.

"Sure, it's nice, but at the same time I can't or I won't attribute the way things have been going exclusively to that," he said. "I've got to control my mind-set and do the right thing in the batter's box."