PHILLIES NEWS

Although they haven't always played like it (see yesterday's post), the Phillies bullpen has been one of the best in the national league all season and tonight they showed the Cardinals just how good they could be. Although he pitched well, Phillies starter Scott Mathieson, recently called up to replace the departed Cory Lidle, lasted just 5 innings tonight. Thus, the Phils needed their bullpen to go 4 innings for the win, something they hadn't done much of, and something they hadn't really done successfully. However, as soon as Geoff Geary entered the game in the 6th inning and retired the 1st batter he faced, it was clear tonight would be different and it was. All told, Geary, Arthur Rhodes, and closer Tom Gordon combined, for 4 not just scoreless, but perfect innings. That's right, in 4 innings of work, neither Geary, nor Rhodes, nor Gordon allowed a run, hit, or a walk. They retired all 12 batters they faced, which is as good as it gets, and the main reason the Phillies came up with a huge 5-3 win, which I might add gave Scott Mathieson his 1st career win, pretty cool considering all those hard luck losses he suffered in his 1st go around with the Phils. Now of course the bullpen is not the only reason the Phillies won tonight, there were other contributing factors as well. Mathieson, as I said only pitched 5 innings, but gave up just 3 runs on 3 hits, impressive since he also issued 5 walks. Although he had been hot as of late, Cardinals starter Jeff Suppan just did not have his good stuff tonight, helping the Phillies cause by allowing 5 runs on 9 hits in 5 innings. Ryan Howard, playing in front of his hometown (That's right he is from St. Louis), knocked in 3 of those runs on a 2-RBI single in the 3rd inning, and a solo homer in the 5th inning (36, 3 more than Cards counterpart Albert Pujols). Chris Coste also added a run to the Phillies total and the gave the bullpen, which didn't need it, some insurance with a solo homer in the 6th inning. Lastly, Chase Utley had 2 hits on the day (his hitting streak is 33 games now) and scored a run. So as you can see, just about everybody had a hand in the Phils win tonight, which is exactly how it should be. Also with today's win the Phils have won 4 of their last 5, and have quietly moved to within 4.5 games of the wild card, at 50-55, so who knows, they may yet have a playoff run in them. Well happy trails everyone.