Phillies Beat Dodgers; Advance to World Series!

The Philadelphia Phillies beat the LA Dodgers by a score of 5 - 1 to win the NLCS and earn their 6th National League pennant in their 126 years of existence.

Jimmy Rollins quieted the crowd right out of the gate by slamming a lead off homer to give the Phils the early lead and the early momentum.

The Phils extended their lead in the 3rd, when with one out, Jimmy Rollins singled and stole second. After a Jayson Werth strikeout and a Chase Utley walk, Rollins scored on a Ryan Howard basehit. Pat Burrell plated Chase Utley with a single of his own, giving the Phillies a 3 - 0 lead.

The Phils extended their lead in the top of the fifth. With Howard on 1st and Utley on 2nd with 1 out, Pat Burrell hit a nubber to Rafael Furcal. Furcal booted the ball, and Utley, seeing Furcal lose the ball, ran hard all the way around 3rd and came home safely to extend the Phillies lead to 4 - 0. Furcal was also charged with a throwing error in a vain attempt to throw out Utley at home, allowing Burrell and Howard to advance. The Phils were able to get Ryan Howard home on yet another Rafael Furcal throwing error with two outs to make it 5 - 0.

Cole Hamels, meanwhile, went 7 strong innings giving up 1 run and striking out 5. The only run he gave up was to (who else?) Manny Ramirez on a solo home run. Hamels turned it over to the bullpen, which meant Ryan Madson in the 8th inning and Brad Lidge to close matters out in the 9th.

Notes:

- Because David Boreanaz announced the Phils starting lineup for Fox, Channel 6 weatherman Dave Roberts, who is Boreanaz's father, got a shout out from announcer Joe Buck during the telecast.

- Good to see Scott Boras in the crowd last night. How does he hide his Satan horns and where does he keep his pitchfork?

- Great turn by Jimmy Rollins on that double play the Phils turned in the 5th inning.

- Tremendous running catch by Burrell on Ethier's drive in the bottom of the 6th. Did not think Burrell would come up with that ball.

- Why wasn't Russell Martin thrown out after vehemently arguing balls and strikes with the home plate? Loved the Fox replays of Martin slamming his equipment after the discussion. If Martin could hit with the same aplomb that he threw equipment around in this series, the Dodgers might still be in the series.

- Can't believe that Dodger fans cheered when they thought Victorino got hurt sliding back into first on a pickoff attempt late in the game. I've written it in comments over at 700level.com and I'll write it again: if that had happened in Philly, the announcers would have made a point to mention it and it would have been a much bigger deal. The stories about Dodger fans in this series have not been good ones.

- Great diving grab by Chase Utley on Furcal's shattered bat shot in the bottom of the 8th.

- Lidge gave us a couple of "moments" in the 9th; both "moments" disappeared into the glove of Shane Victorino, deep in center field.

- NLCS MVP: Cole Hamels.

Phils Take Lead in NLCS

Chase Utley and Pat Burrell both hit homers and Cole Hamels went 7 strong innings as the Phillies beat the Dodgers last night in Game 1 of the NLCS. The win gives the Phils a 1 - 0 series lead, with the NLCS continuing this afternoon with a Happy Hour starting time.

Hamels struggled a little bit in the early going of this game, giving up consecutive doubles in the first inning to Andre Ethier and Manny Ramirez to give the Dodgers a 1 - 0. The Dodgers extended the lead to 2 - 0 in the 4th inning, off a double from Matt Kemp, who was eventually advanced and chased home on a sacrifice fly from Blake DeWitt.

Offensively, the Phillies struggled mightily to do anything with Derek Lowe in the early going. The made some noise in the bottom of the 5th, getting two out singles from Chooch Ruiz and Cole Hamels, before Jimmy Rollins flied out to end the inning. That set the stage for a 6th inning of fireworks from two of the Phillies big guns.

Shane Victorino led off the inning by getting on base via a Rafael Furcal throwing error. Chase Utley then hit the first pitch of his at bat into the first couple of rows in right field, evening the score at 2. Utley's homer revived the home crowd, who was put to sleep by the Phillies pounding the ball into the infield for the better part of 5 innings. The Phillies eventually took the lead in the 6th inning, when Pat Burrell took a 3 - 1 pitch out of the yard to left in what could be charitably described as a flower box shot.

Hamels, meanwhile, got through the 7th inning by striking out two of the three batters he faced and that ended his evening with 8 strikeouts and 2 runs allowed. Ryan Madson pitched the 8th inning and Brad Lidge closed matters with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

As mentioned earlier, the Phils and Dodgers play again today at Happy Hour (4:35pm) with Brett Myers facing Chad Billingsly.

Notes:

- Like you, I thought Manny Ramirez's double in the first inning was out of the park from the bat. Apparently, so did Manny. If he had run that ball out, it would have possibly been a triple and he might have scored on the passed ball incurred by Chooch Ruiz in the first inning.

- TJ Simers is trying his best to take shots at us in his columns of late (today's offering is here). And for the record, I'd much rather live in a passionate and substantive city like "Angryville" than the shallow and fake "Fairweatherville" that is the city of Los Angeles.

- Good offering in yesterday's USA Today on some of the previous playoff clashes between the Dodgers and Phillies. The symmetry of Davy Lopes and Larry Bowa's careers is something I touched on here in the beginning of the season.

2008 Phillies: Why Not Us?

As we focus on MLB's final four teams, I feel sort of lucky that a second of my four favorite sports teams were able to make it to their sports final four participants (the Flyers being the other). If your team is out of the hunt for the World Series right now, I think I can break it down for you and let you know why you should most assuredly be rooting for the Phillies.

1.) The Other 3 Cities Have Recently Won Stuff. Think about it.

Tampa won a Super Bowl after the 2002 season and they won the 2004 Stanley Cup. And by the way: they won both of those championships by going through a Philadelphia team. Besides, no one in Tampa gives a damn about sports when their team isn't good. Do I have to remind you there is no income tax in Florida?

LA? They had the Shaq and Kobe years, which like, just happened 5 minutes ago. And LA has all the hot actresses you can gape at in addition to beautiful weather. Not worthy.

And do you really need me to get into it about Boston???

Trust me, Philly needs this championship more than Wall Street needs more cheap loans.

2.) The way the team was built. I wish I could say it was by design that the Phillies are in contention. The previous GM did not really have a plan for the Phils, but the Phils were built through the draft (5 of their starting 8 were Phillies draft products), sound free agent acquisitions (namely, Jayson Werth and Chad Durbin), and shrewd trades (getting Jamie Moyer from the M's, Brad Lidge from the 'Stros). Furthermore, there are no Alex Rodgriguez-like salaries on this team.

It's funny, but the Tampa Bay Rays are often lauded for having developed their own talent, but you could make this same case for the Phils. Where would the Phils be without Jimmy Rollins, Pat Burrell, Ryan Madson, Cole Hamels, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Brett Myers, and Shane Victorino (Rule 5 draftee)? All of those players were drafted by the Phils and figure prominently in their success.

3.) The Phillies players are really a likable group. Hate on the fans all you want, but these Phillies players are a great group.

Rollins may have called out the fans earlier this year, but he comes up big on the bigger stages and does everything with style. Shane Victorino is such a ball of energy, that the manager needs to remind him to tone it DOWN once in awhile. What is not to like about the short, crisp swing of Chase Utley? And the Big Man, Ryan Howard.....outside of Albert Pujols, he is as powerful a hitter as there is in baseball. Who wouldn't want to sit and have a beer with Pat Burrell as he tells you how he REALLY feels about Billy Wagner?

And don't forget about Brad Lidge, coming back from the baseball dead, Jayson Werth overcoming years of injury problems to realize his potential, and our ace in the making, Cole Hamels.

We may boo, cajole, complain, and catcall on occasion, but Phillies fans genuinely like this team.

So feel free to hop on the bandwagon, America*. Beers at McFadden's are on me**.

* Note: Offer does not apply to Mets fans.
** Note: I really can't afford to buy America beer.

Phils Advance to NLCS

The Phillies powered past the Milwaukee Brewers by a score of 6 - 2 yesterday to win their best-of-5 game series with the Brew Crew 3 games to 1. The Phils advance to meet the LA Dodgers, who swept the Cubs in their NLDS series last night.

Phils starter Joe Blanton pitched 6 strong innings, giving up 1 run on 5 hits and striking out 7. The Brewers hitters continued to be patient, running several deep counts with Blanton, but Blanton was able to get the outs when he needed them. Blanton did come out to pitch the 7th inning, but after two straight hits (one of them a Prince Fielder homer), Ryan Madson came on to relieve Blanton. Madson did give up a run, but at the point of the game that Madson entered, the Phils were up by a score of 5 - 1, so Madson was simply collecting outs to get the game to Brad Lidge.

Offensively, the Phils came out of the gate swinging, getting a homer from Jimmy Rollins to lead off the game. Seeing your team down a run before you even get to your seat can be terribly debilitating to a fan and that is what Rollins' lead off homer was able to accomplish.

The big blow, offensively, came from the bat of Pat Burrell. Burrell, who had been struggling coming into this game, came to bat in the bottom of the 3rd, with 2 on and 2 outs. Burrell took a 2 - 2 offereing from Jeff Suppan and drove it to left center field for a 3-run home run that effectively broke open the game and gave the Phils a 4 - 0. Jayson Werth followed up Burrell's homer with a solo shot of his own to extend the lead to 5 - 0.

As an encore, Burrell hit yet another homer in the 8th inning to close out the scoring.

The NLCS starts this Thursday in Philadelphia, with Cole Hamels facing Derek Lowe.

Notes:

- Can't stop now! I like the matchup against the Dodgers and I'll say why a little later this week.

- If there was an MVP in the NLDS, it would have to be Shane Victorino. Victorino scored or drove in a run in all 3 Phillies victories, including the decisive grand slam against CC Sabathia in Game 2. For the series, Victorino hit .357 with 3 doubles, a homer, and 5 RBI. He also had an OPS of 1.256 for the series.

- Between the Phillies still being in action, the Eagles playing on Sunday afternoon, and the Flyers starting regular season play this Saturday, in addition to all of the college football action, how much marital discord will this coming weekend cause?

Photo: Yahoo.com....(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Phils Filet Fish

Jimmy Rollins had 3 hits and 3 steals and provided the offensive spark needed to drive the Phils to an 8 - 6 win over the Florida Marlins. The win put the Phils within 1 1/2 games of the Mets in NL East.

Joe Blanton had the ball last night for the Phils and was not very good in his 5 innings of work. He gave up 4 earned runs during the start, but he seemed all over the strike zone. He had real control problems in the 2nd inning, walking the first two batters, both of whom went on to score. The frustrating part of this is that the Phillies had just tacked two runs up on the Marlins and Blanton's lack of control put the Phils right back to square one.

After the Phillies put up 3 more runs in the 2nd inning (one of them thanks to a Joe Blanton SF), Blanton walked Hanley Ramirez to lead off the 3rd and was made to pay for that walk when Mike Jacobs hit a big fly to cut the Phils lead to 5 - 4. Blanton was eventually lifted after 5 innings for Chad Durbin, who turned in his usual stellar effort.

Offensively, the Phils were paced by their leadoff man, Jimmy Rollins, who knocked in a run and scored 2 more runs to go with his 3 hits and 3 steals. Jayson Werth hit a 3-run bomb that gave the Phils an 8 - 4 lead that they would not relinquish.

The Marlins did manage to get 2 runs off of JC Romero before Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge closed them out.

The series continues today with Chris Volstad facing Kyle Kendrick.

Notes:

- Pat Burrell was not in the lineup last night, nor should he be. He's got 8 strikeouts in his last 22 ABs and he's hitting .222 over that stretch. A pennant race is no time for being sensitive to a players feelings; Werth is playing well right now, so he has to be in the lineup.

- You could tell by watching JC Romero that he was going to give up that homer to Cody Ross. Anytime Romero nibbles around the plate with his pitches, you can tell he's not confident. Romero needs to pound the strikezone to be successful.

- The 6th inning was closed out by the Phils with a pretty 3 - 6- 1 double play, with Durbin covering first base.

Phils Drop Series to Nats

The Phillies, allegedly girding themselves for a run at the NL East lead, dropped a series they easily could have won last night by losing to the Nationals by a score of 9 - 7.

The game got off to a good start, with the Phils posting 2 runs in the top of the first on a home run from Ryan Howard. But starter Joe Blanton, who only lasted 4 innings last night, gave those 2 runs back in addition to 2 more runs before giving way to Ryan Madson and bullpen in the fifth inning.

The bullpen, led by Chad Durbin, has been one of the most reliable parts of the Phillies this season. Not last night. Durbin came in during the 7th inning and gave up a bomb to straightaway centerfield to Ryan Zimmerman. He combined with JC Romero to give up more runs in the 8th inning allowing the Nats to salt the game away, despite the Phils scoring 2 in the top of the ninth.

Offensively, the Phils were led by Ryan Howard's 2 homers and Chase Utley's 2 RBI.

The Phils begin probably their most important series of the season this Friday at Shea Stadium when they take on the Mets. According to various reports, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel is looking to move up Cole Hamels' start so he gets the opportunity to face the Mets in what will be his first start against them this year. Anything less than taking 2 of 3 and the Phils are putting themselves in a mighty big hole down the stretch.

Probable Starters:

Friday: Myers vs. Pelfrey

Saturday: Moyer vs. Martinez

Sunday: Hamels vs. Santana.

Notes:

- The whole business with the Nationals having to make sure they got their pound of flesh from Chase Utley for bowling over their catcher was astounding. For one thing, Utley never went at the guy's head; it was a shoulder to shoulder hit. Secondly, let's not forget it was Nationals starter John Lannan who hit Utley with a pitched ball last year, shelving Utley for period of time down the stretch last year. So if any team should have had a beef, it should have been the Phillies.

Back to last night....Utley was hit by a pitched ball from Odalis Perez and was upended on a hard (clean) take out slide by Lastings Milledge. Hmmmm......

Let's add on that Chase Utley leads the league in being hit by pitched balls and frankly, I think it's now time for the Phillies pitchers to begin protecting the All-Star second baseman. Interestingly, Washington comes to Philly for the last series of the year. If the Phils are out of the race by then, things could get nasty.

Photo: Yahoo.com....(AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

Phils Stun Mets; Back in First

There was a feeling that the Phils HAD to have this game, given that Santana is pitching tomorrow night and has generally pitched well against the Phillies. Who knew the lengths they had to go to in order to accomplish that feat.

The Phils beat the Mets by a score of 8 - 7 in 13 innings, but had to do it by coming from behind and overcoming a 7 - 0 deficit in order to do so. The win catapaults the team a half game into first place in NL East.

The Mets jumped out to a 6 - 0 lead off of Phils starter Jamie Moyer, who had his shortest outing as a Phil. Moyer gave up 2 homeruns; one to 2B Damion Easley, and a more controversial one to Fernando Tatis. Tatis, a few pitches before he hit the homer, hit a fair ball off of his own man, Carlos Beltran, who was leading off of 3B and was in fair territory. By rule, he should have been out and Tatis awarded first. Instead, Moyer continued to work to Tatis, who eventually took him deep to make the score 6 - 0.

From that point, the Phils bullpen put a stopper on things, giving up just 1 run in 10 innings of work.

Offensively, the Phils finally woke up a bit in the 4th, scratching out a run on a Pedro Feliz sacrifice fly. The 5th inning saw the Phils get a lead off double from pitcher Clay Condrey, followed by a 2-run homerun by Jimmy Rollins. After a Chase Utley walk and a Pat Burrell strikeout, Ryan Howard took Pedro Martinez to the opposite field to pull the Phils within 2 runs and Citizen's Bank Ballpark seemed to coming alive.

After threatening in the 6th inning, the Phils scraped together another run via a Jimmy Rollins single that scored Carlos Ruiz to draw them within a run.

The 9th inning called for desperate measures with 2 outs. Jayson Werth kept the game going with a single up the middle that was off of the end of his bat. The next batter, Eric Bruntlett, was the last position player off of the bench and he responded with a double, scoring Werth and tying the game. Werth appeared to almost run over the plate without actually touching it the first time (fortunately, he had time to double back and touch the plate).

In extra innings, the Phils threatened in both the 10th and 11th inning, but to no avail. The Phils bullpen, led in extra innings by Ryan Madson, JC Romero, and Rudy Seanez held down the fort allowing scant opportunities for the Mets outside of a stray walk or basehit, which was left stranded.

In the 13th inning, the game was over for all practical purposes when Shane Victorino led off, shearing a triple to right field. From that point, the Mets loaded the bases by walking Bruntlett and Werth intentionally in order to trigger a double play. After an "interesting" strikeout by PH Brett Myers, Chris Coste sent a 1-0 Scott Schoeneweis offering over CF Carlos Beltran's head to score Victorino and send the Phils into first place.

The 2-game series ends tonite with Johan Santana possibly facing Kyle Kendrick. I say "possibly", because, in this bizarre game, Kendrick was warming up in the bullpen to possibly enter the game. You wonder if the Phils still intend to pitch Kendrick today.

NOTES:

- Jimmy Rollins' offensive numbers: 5 for 7, a double, a homer, 3 RBI, and 3 SBs. This is the type of performance that earned the MVP and it's what's been missing from the Phils offense for most of this season.

- Bruntlett and Coste, entering the game late, ended up going a combined 6 for 6 with 2 RBI, in hitting the game tying and game winning hits respectively.

- Unforgivable slip by Tom McCarthy in the bottom of the 12th, continually referring to CBP as "Shea". Tom, please just head back up the turnpike and tell Scott Graham to please come back.

- Not sure it was possible for Pat Burrell to have a more feeble night at the plate in striking out 4 times in 7 ABs and leaving 10 men on base.

- The home plate umpire, Mike Everitt, had a tough night. By the 12th inning, I had no idea what a strike was and the way he blew that call in the 3rd inning, where Tatis hit a fair ball off of Carlos Beltran, leading off of 3rd base in fair territory, was unconscionable.

- Carlos Ruiz played 3B last night; the first time he has done so in the Majors.

- Can you imagine trying to keep score of this game?

- Big outfield assist from Jayson Werth in the 11th inning on a hit by David Wright. The ball kicked off the stands just right, Werth was in the right spot to pick up the ball, and gunned out Wright, who appeared to injure his hand on the play. It'll be interesting to see if Wright, who earlier fouled a ball off of his foot, will play tonite.

- Myers' AB in the 13th inning was comical. He did a bunch of posturing, as if he was going to take his hacks, when in reality, it seems he was just sent to stand there and maybe draw a walk with no outs and the bases loaded. The strategy almost worked. Myers went to 3 - 2, before he struck out looking.

Pic from Yahoo.com ((AP Photo/Tom Mihalek))

Phils Win; Rollins Jeered

The Phils pulled out a 5 - 4 win over the Washington Nationals last night on the strength of a Jayson Werth home run in the bottom of the 8th inning. The homer capped a comeback for the Phils, who were down in the game 4 - 1 after the 4th inning.

But the big story of the game was the return to Philadelphia of one James Calvin Rollins, who recently made some comments you may have heard about.

In a purely unscientific guess as to the ratio of cheers and boos when Rollins first came to bat in the first inning, I'd have to guess it was about 60 or 70 percent booing, with the rest of the folks cheering.

Let there be no doubt, however, that in the 5th inning, when Rollins hit into a rally killing 4-6-3 double play, the natives were pissed and reacted accordingly and loudly. There was no mixture for that particular slice of fan reaction; the Phils had just scored on a sacrifice fly from the bat of Geoff Jenkins and had just turned the lineup over, when Rollins (batting left) rolled over on an 0-1 pitch.

The crowd did give Jimmy a nice hand when he smoked a 3-2 pitch from Steve Shell for an apparent home run, only to have the wind knock the ball down for a long, loud out.

In non-JRoll news from the game, Joe Blanton pitched 5 innings and seemed to labor. He seemed to be high in the zone and fortunately, the wind kept balls in the park last night, or else the score might have been higher for both sides. Blanton gave up all 4 runs and struck out 3. He gave way to Chad Durbin and Ryan Madson, who kept the Nats at bay and Brad Lidge came in to nail down save number 31.

The series continues tonite with Brett Myers facing Collin Balester. However, I suspect that the focus will continue to be on how the crowd reacts to Jimmy Rollins. I suspect that the vitriol will subside as the days go by, but this self-inflicted wound will heal much quicker if Rollins creates the kind of offensive wave we all know he's capable of.

Notes:

- Greg Dobbs and Chris Coste accounted for the other Phils RBIs.

- Donovan McNabb felt the need to render his opinion on the Rollins situation to Philly.com. Mostly empathetic to JRoll......

- Mike Missannelli had two interesting guests in the past few days weigh in on the Rollins situation. Both have had unique relationships with the Philadelphia sports fans over the years. Former Phil player and manager Larry Bowa weighed in, and I'm paraphrasing here, saying that playing in the Northeast can come with a bit of fan negativity. Charles Barkley weighed in with a very similar sentiments (audio link not up on 950's website....I'll post it if it goes up).

Photo: (AP Photo/Tom Mihalek)

Moyer, Bats Dumps Nats

Jamie Moyer pitched craftily for 6 innings in the DC heat and the bats came alive last night for the first time in awhile as the Phils beat the Nationals by a score of 8 - 5. With this win, and last night's loss by the Mets, the Phils are in first place by a half game.

The Phils jumped out to a 2 - 0 lead in the 1st inning thanks to a Pat Burrell 2-run single. The Nats did manage to go out in front in the bottom of the first inning, however, touching up Moyer for 3 runs. But that was all the light hitting Nationals would get from Moyer, as the old guy kept the Nationals off balance before giving way to the bullpen.

As for the moribund Phils offense, it came around against a pitcher who had given them fits in previous outings this year. Tim Redding seemed to be getting into the groove after a rough first inning, until he got to the fifth inning. That's when the Phils put together 4 hits to score 5 runs. The biggest blow came courtesy of Chase Utley, who hit a 2-run bomb to left center. Utley went 2 for 4 in the game and has now homered in consecutive games.

Shane Victorino capped off the scoring for the Phils when he hit his 9th home run on the season. Victorino went 3 for 5 last night with 3 RBI and pushed a modest hitting streak to 10 games.

The series concludes tonite, with Kyle Kendrick facing John Lannan at 7:10pm.

Notes

- The non-waiver trade deadline is today and the Phils had been rumor grist in recent days as a potential trade destination for Manny Ramirez. Would love to see the Phils get Ramirez and wouldn't care if they included Burrell in the deal, but I can't help but wonder if the best option for the Red Sox wouldn't be to keep Ramirez through the reminder of this year and let him walk in the off-season. I can't imagine them parting with Ramirez without having someone of reasonably comparable ability to replace him so they can still challenge for a World Series this year. My prediction? Manny will stay put in Boston and the Phils may add some bullpen help, but can't imagine the Phillies making a big splash today.

- Another crappy outing last night for Ryan Madson. In his last 4 relief appearances, he has given up 6 earned runs.

Phils Lose; Tied for First

The Phils fell in Flushing last night by a score of 6 - 3. The loss dropped the Phils back into a first place tie with the Mets in the NL East.

The game marked Brett Myers' first start since a June 27th loss to the Texas Rangers. Myers managed to go 5 shaky innings and was lucky to have only given up 3 runs. He started off on a bad foot, walking the first 4 guys he faced. Myers managed to settle down somewhat, but could not consistently locate his fastball.

The pivotal inning in the game, however, was the 6th inning, when the ball was handed to reliever Ryan Madson. Madson gave up two hits and, after an aborted sacrifice, coughed up a 3-run bomb to Jose Reyes. Reyes then managed to perform about a dozen celebratory handshakes and gestures enroute from home plate to the dugout. I thought Reyes was having some sort of epileptic seizure, but apparently seizures are not a symptom of assholery.

Offensively, the Phils could only manage a couple of a solo homers (Victorino and Jenkins) and an RBI double from Rollins. Can anyone remember the last hit of consequence from Chase Utley?

The series concludes tomorrow at 12:10pm, with Jamie Moyer taking the ball against the Mets' Oliver Perez.

Notes:

- I liked the move to pull Myers after 5 innings. Let him leave without the possibility of taking a loss. He wasn't great, but it could have been worse.

- Please someone tell Chase Utley the second half has begun.

- Ryan Howard was not charged for an error on that ground ball in the first inning that he should have caught to start a double play (which would have prevented a run), but he should have been.

- Ryan Madson. Not good.

- Can't believe I'm about to say this: Chris Wheeler made an excellent point to Tom McCarthy during the broadcast about Carlos Beltran. Beltran, a player who makes $18.6 million dollars a year, laid down a sacrifice bunt with nobody out during the 8th inning last night. That was, as Wheeler said, a dumb baseball play. A hitter of Beltran's calibre (and payscale) should be swinging away in that situation.

Phils Win! Howard Breaking Out?

The Phils beat Roy Oswalt and the Houston Astros last night by a score of 7 - 5. There were several heroes last night, but the first one that should be discussed is the Big Man, Ryan Howard.

Ryan Howard had 3 hits last night, including an opposite field shot off of Oswalt that was reminiscent of Howard's MVP year, when it seemed everything was hit the opposite way. This game for RyHo is on the heels of the game in Washington on Wednesday night, when Howard jacked 2 homers and really looked confident at the plate for the first time in a long time. A confident Ryan Howard will go a long way as the baseball season heads into the Memorial Day weekend (the unofficial start of Summer).

Also of note for Howard: his average is now above the Mendoza line. Howard's average, after two straight 3-hit games, stands at .207.

Want another hero? How about Pat Burrell? Burrell hit a pinch hit home run that broke a 5 -5 tie in the 8th inning.

Pat Burrell? Are you kidding me?

How bad must Burrell want the one more big contract before he goes on permanent happy hour? Maybe that's a bit cynical, because you'd like to think that Burrell could have done the sorts of things he's done this year with a little more consistency in the past.

Want another hero? How about more than one hero? The Phils bullpen pitched 4 scoreless innings after Phils starter Kyle Kendrick gave up 5 earned runs over 5 innings. Ryan Madson, JC Romero, Chad Durbin (who picked up the win), Tom Gordon, and Brad Lidge all combined to hold the Astros down offensively until the bats could wake up and provide the winning margin. Coming back to Houston and picking up a save in a town where he caught a little heat must have been especially satisfying for Brad Lidge. It was his 12th save on the year, and he lowered his ERA to a microscopic 0.43.

The series against Houston continues tonite at 8:05 (televised by CSN) with Adam Eaton facing Brad Backe.

Did you notice?

- Houston's Lance Berkman went 3 for 5 last night and is probably as dialed-in as any baseball player I've seen on another team this year (Brandon Webb, before his loss the other night, comes to mind). He's hitting .388 and was definitely worthy of the hyperbole being heaped upon him by the Phils announcers last night.

- Michael Bourn is hitting for crap (he struck out 3 times last night to go with his 2 hits, but is only hitting .214, with a tiny .275 OBP), but he stole his 21st base last night. The Phils still haven't replaced his speed on the bench.