PHILLIES NEWS

If you looked at the schedule tonight, you probably thought, "sweet we're playing the Cubs tonight, the Phils are gonna win easy". Well, apparently someone forgot to tell the Cubs that they have worst record in the NL and that they were supposed to lose, or maybe someone just forgot to tell the Phils they were supposed to win. Needless to say, after a solid road trip in which they went 7-3, the Phils didn't quite play there best ball today. Jon Lieber, who had been virtually lights out lately, looked like someone had turned the lights out on him, as he lasted just 2 and 1/3rd innings and allowed 5 runs on 5 hits, 3 on a homer by Aramis Ramirez. Things didn't get much better for the Phils after Lieber left, as Eude Brito tossed up another 3 run homer to Aramis Ramirez, and suddenly after only 3 and 1/2 innings it was 8-0 Cubs and things looked bleak. In the bottom of the 4th, the Phils raised hopes of comeback, with 6 runs on a 2 run single by Christ Coste and a grand slam by Jose Hernandez, cutting the lead to 2 at 8-6. Unfortunately the Cubs weren't finished yet and wound up scoring 5 more runs to bury the Phils by a final score of 11-6. Basically, this was just an off night for the Phils, but hopefully they will be able to bounce back tomorrow with a win. Anyway, at the moment the Phils are 1.5 games behind the Dodgers for the wild card lead, but currently the Dodgers are tied with the Padres at 4 in the bottom of the 7th inning. If the Dodgers lose the Phils will be back to within 1.0 game of the wildcard lead otherwise they will drop to 1.5 games back, so go Padres. Well, happy trails everyone.