The pitching.

It's always been about the pitching.

From the first days of spring training, when Roy Halladay threw on a mound next to Cole Hamels, when Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt traded pitching and hunting stories, until the the time the 2011 season officially comes to an end, it will be about the pitching staff the Phillies have showcased in arguably the best summer in the franchise's 129 years of existence.

Roy Oswalt, the only name of the above quartet that isn't on the short list for the National League Cy Young Award consideration, threw seven shutout innings as the Phillies steamrolled over St. Louis 9-2 on Saturday night and clinched the National League East crown for the fifth straight season.

The Phillies 3.00 team ERA leads baseball. Their starting pitchers' combined ERA of 2.86 also leads baseball (it's a good ways ahead of San Francisco's 3.18 ERA).

But what about just the quartet of Halladay and Lee (two former Cy Young Award winners) and Oswalt and Hamels (two former postseason MVPs)? That foursome is 56-29 with a 2.66 ERA in 110 starts this season.

They've combined for seven shutouts and 17 complete games.

Three of Phillies starters - Hamels, Lee and Halladay - rank in the top seven in the NL in ERA. That same trio ranks first, third and fourth, respectively, in the NL in WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched).

The Phillies have played 150 games. In 110 of those games, they've sent an ace to the mound.

It's just as they drew it up in spring training.

“I think they’re better than what was advertised,” proud pitching coach Rich Dubee said Saturday night. “It’s one thing sot say you’re capable of doing certain stuff. But the way these guys have been gone at it the whole year, they’ve gone beyond those expectations and taken it to a new level.”

"They’ve lived up to the hype and more,"said Raul Ibanez, who capped Saturday's win with an eighth-inning grand slam. "They have been phenomenal. One day we’ll be able to tell our grandkids we were a part of a team with a staff like this."

Throw rookie Vance Worley into the mix and the numbers are just as stellar: the fivesome of Halladay, Hamels, Lee, Oswalt and Worley is 67-31 with a 2.69 ERA.