Liberty Ball

Shane Victorino went 3-5 on Sunday against the Braves, scored 3 times, and drove in a run of his own.  Ryan Howard, who is still above .200, was also 3-5 with all three hits being doubles.  He drove in 4 Phillies, mostly Victorino, on the way to a 6-3 victory.

As the guys on TBS said, he looks more confident now and is starting to progress because he is hitting the ball to left field.  During his MVP season in ‘06 Howard showed power to all parts of the field.

The bullpen picked up another win with Brett Myers getting his 17th save.  Adam Eaton had another quality start going 6 innings giving up 3 earned runs.

The Phillies are 15-4 in their last 19 games.  I credit the recent surge to not only the return of healthy Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino at the top of the order, but also to the return of first base coach Davey Lopes.  Since Lopes’ return those two have been on base much more and have been putting pressure on the opposing pitchers and defense all while setting the table for Utley, Howard, and Burrell who each have over 40 RBIs this season.  Only the Texas Rangers can also make the claim of having 3 men with that many RBIs.

The Phillies are up 4 games on the Florida Marlins for the lead in the NL East.  Now I don’t like to say that one game is more important than any other, or that one series is more important…but this one is.  We face the Marlins tonight to start a three game series down in Miami.  A series win here will put us in first place by 5 games.  That is huge no matter what time of the year it is.