PHILLIES NEWS

After their recent struggles with the Marlins, I wanted nothing more than to see the Phils sweep both games of their doubleheader with the Braves tonight, and you know what, they did. In the 1st game of the doubleheader things got off to a bit of a rocky start, as Randy Wolf was roughed up for 5 runs on 6 hits. I mean the game started and before you knew it, it was 5-0 Braves. Fortunately the Phils bullpen had all answers tonight as they not only shutout the Braves for the final 7 innings, they kept them hitless. Meanwhile, the Phils offense was chipping away at the lead, with 3 runs in the 3rd inning, and 3 more in the 8th inning. All told they scored 6 unanswered runs to pull out a dramatic 6-5 win in game 1. In the 2nd game it was more of the same for the Phils except that this time it was the Phils who jumped out to the Early lead at 4-1 and it was Phils starter Jon Lieber, and not the bullpen who shut down the Braves for 7 innings, allowing just 2 runs on 8 hits in 7 and 1/3rd innings of work. Basically the Phils raced out to an early 4-1 lead with 4 runs over the 1st 3 innings, and never looked back winning easily 7-2 to sweep the doubleheader. I don't know about you, but as far as I am concerned that's about as good as the Phils have played in a while and I think they have some real momentum now, so watch out. Anyway, just to update the Wildcard situation, the Padres won today, but the Marlins lost, so the Phils are now back in 2nd place in the wildcard race, 1.5 games behind the Padres for 1st, which is a pretty good position to be in. Well, happy trails everyone.