Thank Freakin' God!

Your Philadelphia Phillies won a wild one this afternoon/evening to take the series from the Atlanta Braves, the first series they won since the All-Star Break. Oakland A import Joe Blanton handed in his second unimpressive start since coming to Philadelphia, allowing two runs on two hits in two innings with an Atlanta single-walk-single-double combo before the skies opened up and rained on his head.

After a nearly two hour rain delay, yesterday's winning pitcher Adam Eaton came in and returned to form, allowing three runs on back-to-back homers to Kelley Johnson and Omar Infante. Eaton would survive without a loss though, as Chris "Taters and Toast" Coste and "Sugar" Shane Victorino wopped two and three run dingers, respectively, in the bottom of the fourth. Pat "the Bat" Burrell added a solo shot in the fifth, his 26th of the season.

The floodgates really opened up for the Phils in the sixth. It started with a double by Carlos "Hamster Pie" Ruiz, followed by Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino singles, giving "the Sweet One" four R.B.I.'s for the day, which, as you know, is the name of the game. The Big Man, Ryan Howard, slaps yet another single, scoring J-Roll easily, and the Flyin' Hawaiian, Shane Victorino, barrelled over big ol' Brian McCann at catcher, knocking the ball lose and giving Howard his league-leading 94th ribby of the year. Jayson Werth contributed one more solo shot and MVP Jimmy Rollins, who scored three total runs today and had a stolen base, also put one out to round out the score at 12-5 by the end of the seventh.

The Bravos gave the Phils a run for their money in the eighth, hitting up odd-man-out in the bullpen Rudy Seanez for four runs and Ryan Madson for one more. Brad "Lights Out" Lidge did his thing with a walk and a strike out in the ninth, allowing no runs and recording his 24th save of the year.

Unfortunately, the hated New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals again today to hold their one game lead over the Phillies (56-49) in the National League East. The Florida Marlins lost to the Chicago Cubs to go two games back in the East, and Atlanta and the Washington Nationals remain non-factors.

The win was a good one. Taking series is how you stay at the top of the standings, and it is a minor miracle the Phils didn't fall further when they fell. Starting a winning streak, especially one featuring a multi hit game for the first four batters in the line-up and three for five with two runs scored and two R.B.I.'s out of the catching platoon, is a good way to stay very relevant. Philadelphia enjoys a day off tomorrow for the Phillies Phestival to raise awareness and money for ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. (http://www.alsa.org/) On Tuesday they'll head down to our nation's capitol to take on the humorous Nationals.

Phils/Braves Weekend Series

7/25/08 Braves 8, Phils 2

Oh, were there some games?... sike! I know all about 'em. In fact for the Phils disgusting Friday night bend-over, I had the best CBP seats of my life, eighteen rows back on the first base side, courtesy of Kristi "Frazer" Vitola, Attorney at Law. Well, what can I say... there were some really shitty calls, MLB umps may be trying to emulate the NFL's popularity by blowing calls all over the league. In this game specifically, first base ump Bob Davidson and second base ump Alfonso Marquez were particularly offensive. I was close enough to see the Braves cheat a double play out of us without tagging second, and then in the ninth, Gregor Blanco was out by a stride at first on the sac bunt, but "No-Eyes" Davidson at first some-fucking-how called him safe, allowing the inning to progress and allowing Brad "Lights Out" Lidge to throw the worst inning of his Phillies career. It's hard for me to blame Lidge though... I mean, he gets paid to be a closer, not late relief. Would Goose Gosssage have been able to do it? Prolly, but the fact remains, you wouldn't have brought in a starter in that sitch, why a closer? Crazy Uncle Charlie, I dunno how safe his job is, and neither do you. Irregardless, win or loss, I had a great time and was honestly beside myself just to watch my faltering, human heroes that close up, even if they failed. Plus, the ninth inning Chase Utley single broke his 0-15 and the Big Man, Ryan Howard promptly shot his 30th dinger of the year over the left field fence.

7/26/08 Phils 10, Braves 9

No time for love, Doctor Jones, we got another game early Saturday, and what a game! While Todd and I scrubbed 6,000 square feet of wall at the new Avon Grove elementary (after some foolish carpenter (well, some foolish something) misused a de-molding agent, we hand scrubbed it off, our arms are jelly) the Phils had a wild one! "Hollywood" Hamels had a rough fourth inning, to say the least. Allowing nine runs, four short of a Philly record, including two walks, two errors, one on Hamels and one on Utley, a double, and a homer to Mark "Adam Sandler" Texiera. Thank goodness the Fightins' showed up today, giving us the comeback we expect and deserve, well at least I expect and deserve it. Down 9-3 in the fifth, your Philadelphia Phillies came alive. The top of the line-up knocked four straight singles, followed by a Pat "the Bat" Burrell sac fly and singles by Jayson Werth and Chris Coste. Now, with the score 9-7 for the Braves, pinch-hittah extraordinaire Greg "the Natural" Dobbs stepped in and smiz-ashed his third, crucial jack of the year on a 1-2 pitch from reliever Blaine Boyer (gotta love hitting off a cat named Blaine!). The pinch hit was Dobbs' twentieth of the season, tying Doc Miller's 1913 Philly record. Greg is hitting .435 of the bench this season, and is exemplary of this team at their best. Nine more pinch hits this year would give Dobbsy the MLB record.

Amazingly, the win went to Adam Eaton, in his first appearance for the Phils out of the bull-pen after proving himself incapable of being a major league starting pitcher. Eaton and five other Phils relievers combined for five plus inning of shutout ball, including a beautiful Lidge rebound from the previous day, pitching a perfect ninth and getting his 23rd save of the season, and his 23rd consecutive save, , utterly shattering the previous record set by Billy "Biggest Asshole in Baseball" Wagner when he did his forgettable stint in Philadelphia a couple years back. The win felt damn good for us Phils, with the hated New York Mets losing to St. Louis, moving us back to one game out of first and within reach of the top spot today. We got one more vs. the Bravos, starting now, turn it on!!