Liberty Ball

The way the Phillies have been playing, I’ll take a two out of three series win.  Things were definitely looking down after the Braves passed the Phillies.

On Monday, the Phillies brought their bats.  Ryan Howard broke the game open in the sixth inning with a three run homerun to make it 5-2.  Then in the seventh, the Phillies scored five more to make it a blow out.  David Bell drove in three runs and Jimmy Rollins scored three runs.  Clay Condrey picked up the win in relief of Jon Lieber.

The offense went away on Tuesday, but the pitching was just as good.  Bret Myers has been out best pitcher this season and he continued to throw well.  He went eight innings and gave up only two runs on three hits and two walks with six strikeouts.  Bobby Abreau accounted for most of the Phillies offense with a three run homerun in the 4-2 win.

Today, the Phillies had the pitching but the offense didn’t show up.  Aaron Rowand and David Delucci hit solo homeruns and Cory Lidle had a decent start go to waste.  He gave up three runs on seven hits and three walks with five strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings.  He dropped to 4-5 with the 2-3 loss.

Now the Phillies have to hop on a plane and head to the west coast to face the Dodgers for four games.  This series will be the beginning of a ten game road trip that will also include the Diamondbacks and the Nationals.  The Braves are most likely to win tonight, so we’ll be a half game back of them and either four or five games back of the Mets who are in the middle of an eleven inning 0-0 game with the Diamondbacks.

It was a rough series for the Phillies and it was highlighted by the fact that for the first time in about a month, we’re now in third place.  I’m short on time so instead of talking about the losses on Friday and Saturday, I’ll only highlight the win on Sunday. 

Sunday was the Ryan Madson and Ryan Howard show.  Madson picked up the win and he improved to 5-3 on the season.  Madson gave up two runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts in five innings.  Then Ryan Howard broke a 2-2 tie with a two run shot in the bottom of the fourth inning.  Final score was 6-2.

The Nationals come to town, and we took game one in a big way.  We still trail the Braves by a half game and the Mets by five, so there’s no time to let up now.

The Phillies went into their series with the Mets down by two games.  They’re leaving the series down by three games.  What’s probably the most disappointing was how Tuesday’s game was blown. 

In the top of the seventh, the Phillies got two insurance runs to give them an 8-5 lead.  Then in the bottom of the eighth, Ryan Franklin gave up three runs that tied the game.  Ryan Madson threw six great innings, then finally gave up a Carlos Beltran solo homerun in his seventh inning of work which ended the game.

For a great read on how Charlie Manual blew this one big time, go check out Joe Sheehan’s column at Baseball Prospectus.  Arthur Rhodes and/or Tom Gordon should have been in there, not Patterson.  And for Manuel to leave him in there was gross mismanagement.  He cost us this game.

Gavin Floyd was hit hard in the 9-8 loss.  On the hitting side, Chase Utley had three hits and David Bell homered and had five RBIs. 

Yesterday’s game wasn’t much better.  The Phillies jumped out to a three run lead, only to lose it by the fourth inning.  The Phillies tied it in the seventh, but the Mets answered with a run in the bottom half of the inning to put the game away.

Ryan Cormier took the loss and Jon Lieber didn’t help much in his start.  Lieber went six innings and he gave up four runs on seven hits and four walks.  Pat Burrell hit his twelth homerun of the season and drove in two runs.

Thankfully, Bret Myers put together a good start for us today.  While he gave up a 3-0 lead, he held on and picked up his third win of the season.  Bobby Abreau and Ryan Howard both homered in the first inning.  Tom Gordon finally got to pitch and he picked up his fourteenth save of the season.

Milwaukee comes to town for a three game series this weekend.  All we can do is keep pluggng away.  Maybe the Mets will falter, but at this point, that’s hard to count on.

The one consolation is, the Mets aren’t doing much better.  The Phillies ended a five game skid today, and they find themselves 2 1/2 games back with the Mets beating the Yankees right now in the fifth inning, so it could be three games by the end of the night.

On Friday, the Red Sox jumped all over Jon Lieber and handed him his first loss in a while.  Chase Utley drove in two runs with a double in the seventh to make it 5-3, but that’s the closest we’d get.  Lieber dropped to 3-5 and he gave up five runs on seven hits with four strikeouts in five innings.  The only other hitting note is that Bobby Abreau had two hits and stolen base.

Yesterday, Bret Myers and Josh Beckett were having a nice pitcher’s dual before the wheels fell of the wagon.  Four runs in the sixth and two in the seventh for the Red Sox broke the game open.  Four of those six runs against Myers were unearned.  Ryan Howard hit a three run shot in the bottom of the eighth to make it 8-4, but that was all the Phillies could muster.

Today, we doubled up the Red Sox, 10-5.  Bobby Abreau led the way with five RBIs and Chase Utley had three hits and two runs.  Cory Lidle improved to 4-4 and he gave up three runs on five hits and two walks with six strikeouts.

Tomorrow is an off day and then the Phillies travel to New York for a huge three game series with the Mets.  Not only do we need to win to make up some of the ground we lost during the losing streak, but we also have to turn it on to keep the Braves from passing us up.

Just when things were looking up, the Phillies go on a losing streak.  To make it worse, all three games were one run games and in all three games we had the lead at least once.  Fortunately, the Mets lost two of three so we’re only two games back of first place.  The downer is, the Braves have won four straight and they’re only a game and a half back of us.

Tuesday was the lowest scoring of the three games.  Ryan Howard drove in Chase Utley with a single in the first inning but the Brewers tied it up with a run in the bottom half of the inning.  Then they took the lead in the third with another run.  The Phillies tied it up in the seventh on David Bell’s RBI double, and the 2-2 game went into the bottom of the ninth.  Then Ryan Franklin threw the ball away and Bill Hall scored to win the game.  A great start by Cory Lidle went to waste in the loss.

On Wednesday, the Phillies blew a 4-1 lead and the Brewers extended the lead to 7-4 before the Phillies tied it up with three in the third.  Then once again, the Brewers got a run in the bottom of the ninth.  Arthur Rhodes took the loss and Gavin Floyd was hit hard.  Bobby Abreau and Ryan Howard both drove in two runs and Dave Delucci went yard.

Today, the Phillies blew a 4-0 lead.  They scored three in the first and then one in the fifth.  The Brewers answered with one in the sixth then took the lead with four in the seventh.  Cole Hamels wasn’t nearly as effective in his second start of the season, but it was Ryan Madson who took the loss.  Pat Burrell homered and drove in two runs and David Bell went three for three.

Interleague play starts tomorrow and the Red Sox come to town.  Should be a great series between two great teams.

This run by the Phillies has been surreal.  At one point I was almost ready to write them off even knowing it was extremely early.  Regardless, since April 30th, the Phillies have won 13 and lost just a single game.  The Mets have become average, and they’ve won only six of their last eleven.  The net result is that the Phillies are only one game back of first place.

Cole Hamels got his first career start on Friday and he lived up to his reputation.  He pitched five shutout innings and gave up only a single hit.  He did walk five, which is a problem, but he struck out seven.  I’m not exactly sure why he didn’t get the win in this one, because he threw the mandatory five innings.  Ryan Madson did get the win, despite almost giving the game away.  He gave up two runs in only one inning of work.  Tom Gordon threw a perfect ninth and struck out two to pick up his eleventh save of the season.  On the hitting side, Ryan Howard went yard for the tenth time this year and Shane Victorino went four for four with a homerun, two RBIs and two runs in the 8-4 win.

Yesterday, Jon Lieber continued his great pitching.  After starting 0-4, he’s now won his last three starts.  He came one hitter short of a complete game and gave up only two hits in the 2-0 win.  Tom Gordon got the final batter out and he earned save number twelve.  The Phillies managed only six hits, but they scored on two of them and that was all they needed.

Today’s game had it’s share of drama and had Ryan Howard come out as the hero.  Jason LaRue took Bret Myers deep in the fifth and until the eighth inning, the Phillies hadn’t scored.  Then Howard pinch hit for Myers and hit a solo shot to tie it up.  The game went into extra frames, and Howard homered again in the twelth.  Three outs later and Tom Gordon had his third save of the series and the Phillies had their sweep with a 2-1 win.

The Phillies get the day off tomorrow then travel to Milwaukee for a three game series.  All you can ask for is for the Phillies to keep on winning.

The rules are the rules, and last night’s game is official.  The game didn’t even make it through five innings, but the Mets were down after they hit in the fifth before the rain came.  A win is a win and we could have used one of these last year.

Tuesday’s game was by far the best of the series.  The Phillies jumped out to a three run lead in the second inning.  That rally was capped off by Jimmy Rollins’ two run double.  Then Bret Myers did his job.  He had a shutout going through seven before the Mets finally got to him in eighth inning.  Xavier Nady took him deep with a two run shot to make it a 3-2 game.  The Phillies answered in the bottom half of the inning with a much needed run on Ryan Howard’s RBI double.  Then Tom Gordon came in, who’s been lights out, to pitch the ninth.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t his day.  He gave up a two run shot to Carlos Delgado, and just like that, the game was tied.

Things didn’t look good when the first two Phillies made outs in the ninth.  Then David Delucci came up huge with a pinch hit triple.  Jimmy Rollins was hit and then Chasey Utley was walked to load the bases.  Then Bobby Abreau caught a break and was safe at first on Aaron Heillman’s throwing error.  Delucci scampered home and the Phillies won the game 5-4.

Wednesday’s game was ugly.  Cory Lidle had one of his worst starts of the season and by the end of the third inning, the Phillies were down 10-0.  Pat Burrell and Ryan Howard both homered but the Phillies never came close to mounting a comeback.  Howard also made two errors in the game and his season total is now six.  That’s not good, fortunately his two misplay were in games where it didn’t much matter.

Yesterday, Chase Utley homered in the first and David Bell drove home Shane Victorino in the fourth and Phillies had a 2-0 leading heading into the bottom of the fifth.  Gavin Floyd looked really sharp and he had only given up two hits when the rain came.  It was eventually called so the Phillies walked away with the series.  The downer of this game was Aaron Rowand messed up his face slamming into the wall and making an outstanding catch that potentially saved the game for the Phillies.

So the Phillies are three games back of the Mets and they travel to Cincinnati, who started out on a tear but has since evened out.  They have won two straight, but hopefully the Phillies can end that mini-streak.

Jimmy Rollins now has a website.  You can check it out at http://www.jimmyrollins.com.

What a run for the Phillies.  I was getting very nervous back in April, but now eight straight wins later and the Phillies find themselves keeping pace with the Mets.

Gavin Floyd had one of his better outings of the season on Friday.  He gave up three runs on nine hits and three walks with two strikeouts in six innings of work.  Fortunately the Phillies got their bats going and gave him a nice four run cushion by the time he left the game.  Chase Utley and Ryan Howard did the bulk of the damage.  Utley went three for five with two homeruns, three RBIs and three runs.  Howard hit two homeruns and drove in three runs.

On Saturday, it was Ryan Madson who had a nice start.  He gave up one run on eight hits and four walks with two strikeouts in six innings.  Tom Gordon continued to earn his keep and he picked up his tenth save with a perfect ninth inning.  Chase Utley remained hot at the plate.  He went two for three with a homerun, two RBIs and a run.  The Phillies defense turned four double plays in the game.

The Phillies jumped all over Matt Morris in last night’s prime time game.  Pat Burrell hit a three run homerun and David Bell went three for four with two runs.  Aaron Rowand and Jimmy Rollins both scored twice in the game and Rowand hit his sixth homerun of the season.

Jon Lieber was good enough to win his second straight game.  He gave up four runs on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts.

The Phillies host the first place Mets in a huge series.  If we can swing two of three, we’ll pick up a game and remain within reasonably close striking distance so hopefully the Phillies will be able to keep their winning streak alive

What a difference a week makes.  The Phillies were floundering at 10-14, and now after winning four more games in a row to bring their current winning streak to five, they find themselves at .500 and in second place.

Things didn’t look like they’d start very well for the Phillies on Monday.  The Marlins jumped out to a 5-1 lead, but the Phillies exploeded for four runs in the seventh to tie the game and three more in the eighth to take the lead.  Pat Burrell homered for the eighth time this year and David Bell had two hits.  Ryan Madson got bailed out after a rough start and Tom Gordon continues to throw very well.  He picked up his seventh save with a perfect ninth inning.

Tuesday looked very similar to Monday’s game.  The Phillies scored three runs in the fourth to make it 3-1 but the Marlins scored four in the fifth to take the lead back.  Then a Jimmy Rollins solo shot and an Aaron Rowand bases clearing triple put four runs on the board in the seventh inning.  Again, the bullpen was fantastic and Gordon picked up save number eight.  Jon Lieber won his first game of the season despite getting roughed up. He gave up five runs (four earned) on nine hits with five strikeouts in six innings.

Atlanta rolled into town on Wednesday, and even that didn’t slow down the Phillies.  They took a three run lead in the third, but the Braves picked at it and eventually took a 4-3 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth.  Then Aaron Rowan hit a two run shot and Tom Gordon slammed the door shut in the ninth to win the game.  Rowand finished the game with three RBIs and Chase Utley scored twice.  Bret Myers had a solid start but he didn’t get the decision.  He gave up three runs (two earned) on five hits and two walks with five strikeouts.

Ryan Howard was the man in the finale.  He drove in three runs and hit his sixth homerun of the game in the 6-3 win.  Jimmy Rollins also homered and Cory Lidle improved to 3-3 on the season.  He gave up three runs (two earned) on five hits and three walks with five strikeouts.  The one downer was Mike Lieberthal left the game in the sixth inning after getting hit by a pitch in the knee.

San Francisco rolls into town today for a weekend series.  As it stands, the Phillies are in sole possession of second place, but they’re five games back of the Mets, who look very formidable this year.  All we can do is keep on winning, and hopefully things will take care of themselves.