PHILLIES NEWS

From the onset things looked bleak for the Phillies this afternoon (Wednesday). Just minutes into the bottom of the 1st inning after the Phillies had scored a run in the top of the inning, Jon Lieber, served up a 3 run homer to Josh Bard, and it seemed inevitable that things would only get worse. However, Lieber kept his cool, and the Padres scoreless for the next 5 innings. Meanwhile, the Phils offense was chipping away at the lead, scoring a run in the 4th inning, on Chris Coste's 1st major league homerun, and adding another in the 6th inning to tie the score at 3. Then, just as things seemed to be brightening for the Phils, dark clouds appeared on the horizon. On one of the last of his 123 pitches for the night Lieber, served up a double off the the bat of Brian Giles which scored the go-ahead run for a 4-3 Padres lead. When the Phillies followed that, by going down in order in the top of the 8th inning it seemed that although down just 4-3 all hope was lost, as a save by one of the game's greatest ,Trevor Hoffman, was surely a mere formality, but as they say that's why they play game. Shane Victorino was hit with the 1st pitch of the inning and Chase Utley, who earlier had extended his hit-streak to 21 games, followed with a walk. Then up stepped, the much maligned and much speculated on Bobby Abreu. After falling behind in the count 0-2, Abreu laced a double to right center field, scoring both runners for a 5-4 Phillies lead, and suddenly for a moment Abreu was no longer the criticized slumpee, but the revered hero. Tom Gordon retired the Padres in order in the bottom of the inning to seal the 5-4 victory and you could hear Charlie Manuel's sigh of relief from here. Well, rather than do more speculating on the Phillies future, I am just going to say good for Abreu, and thank God the Phillies won. Well, happy trails everyone.