Liberty Ball

At least the Phillies went out on a winning note.  The Mets are running away with the NL East and the Phillies have more then half a dozen teams ahead of them for the Wild Card.  While the Phillies will probably stay on the fringe of contention in the second half, they’ll probably have to play around .600 ball to make the playoffs.  Part of me looks at the young talent on the team and I think they can do it, but then the cynical side of me always says “These are the Phillies, get real.”

Jon Lieber made his triumphant return on Friday and it went to waste.  He had a solid start and gave up three runs (two earned) on five hits and one walks with two strikeouts in seven innings of work.  Unfortunately, Pirates starter Ian Snell was just a little bit better and held the Phillies to two runs on four hits.  Jimmy Rollins was the hitting star and he went two for four with a run.

A four run first inning pushed the Phillies to a 6-2 win on Saturday.  Backup catcher Coste drove in three runs to lead the offense and Chase Utley went three for five with a run.  Aaron Rowand had a hit, an RBI and he scored twice.

Yesterday was a blow out of sorts.  The game was tied 3-3 when the Phillies scored two in the fifth and three in the sixth to open the game.  The final was 8-3 and Bobby Abreau had three hits and two runs.  Rollins and Pat Burrell scored twice while Aaron Rowand and Coste drove in two runs a piece.  Cole Hamels put together a nice start he improved to 2-4.  He gave up three runs on six hits through five innings and he struck out seven.

After the break, the Phillies head out west with the first stop in San Francisco.  This is one of those teams that’s ahead of us in the Wild Card picture so we can’t lose too many of these.