PHILLIES NEWS

Normally, he doesn't make many mistakes while he is on the mound, but the few mistakes that Jamie Moyer made in his start today, would be all the Braves needed to get the win. For 4 innings Moyer dueled to a scoreless tie with Braves starter Chuck James. In the 5th inning however, he made his 1st mistake serving up a 3 run homer to Martin Prado for a 3-0 Braves lead. Still, the Phils had come back from 5-0 down to win 6-5 just yesterday, so there was still hope that they could pull out the win. However, it only got worse for the Phils in the 6th inning as Moyer made his 2nd and final mistake, serving up a solo homer to Andrew Jones for a 4-0 Braves. All told, in 6 innings of work Moyer allowed just 5 hits, but because of 2 measely pitches that hung over plate, 4 runs had managed to cross the plate. Meanwhile, as Moyer was making mistakes, James was continuing to cruise and although the Phils were only down 4-0 it was beginning to look like the night would not be theirs. In total, James wound up blanking the Phils for 7 innings on 5 hits, before being lifted for a reliever before the beginning of the 8th inning. All that averted a combined shutout of the Phils for the Braves, was an RBI single by Jeff Conine in the 8th inning, as the Braves averted the series sweep with a 4-1 win. Basically, the Phils just didn't get the job done tonight, and really didn't deserve to win this one. Now, of course to make matters worse the Padres won earlier today so the Phils are now 2.5 games back in the wildcard race, but that's still more than within striking distance, if only the Phils could get on a roll in the final 16 games of their season. Well, happy trails everyone.