PHILLIES NEWS

Before we talk about what happened today, let me just clear up something I said yesterday. I mentioned that Phils were rained out yesterday and that it had not been determined yet when it would be made up. Well it's been determined now. The Phils played a doubleheader today, because of previous game that had to be made up and tomorrow they are going to play another doubleheader to make up yesterday's game. Anyway back to today and doubleheader number 1. It took a while but the Phils and Braves got the 1st game of the doubleheader underway after a rain delay. Now, sometimes sitting around in a rain delay before you even start a game can throw you off your game, but through 8 innings in game 1 it didn't seem to effect the Phils at all. Jon Lieber tossed 8 solid innings allowing just 2 runs on 8 hits, and Chase Utley homered twice knocking in 3 runs, as the Phils led 3-2 heading into the top of the 9th. Unfortunately, for the 2nd game in a row the Phils bullpen couldn't close it out as Arthur Rhodes served up a 2 run homer to Adam Laroche which wounded up winning it for the braves 4-3. Obviously that was not the way the Phils wanted to start today, but perhaps it motivated them to do better in the night cap, because they did in a big way. Despite losing starter Scott Mathieson to a sprained elbow just 6 pitches into the game, the night belong to the Phils. Eude Brito, replaced Mathieson admirably for the first 4 innings, allowing just 2 runs on 4 hits, and the Phils offense pounded the Braves for 20 hits and 16 runs, as the Phils took the 2nd game of the doubleheader easily 16-4. Obviously with 16 runs to work with there was no way that even the bullpen could screw this one up. Anyway just to summarize, that's 1 up and 1 down for the Phils on the day and at the moment that leaves them .5 games behind the Padres in the Wild Card race. Well, happy trails everyone.