PHILLIES NEWS

The Phillies continued their series with Cubs tonight. This time there was no blowout as ex A's teammates Joe Blanton and Rich Harden squared off in a rare pitcher's duel at the Bank. Jimmy Rollins slammed a solo homer in the bottom of the 3rd and Kosuke Fukudome slapped an RBI double in the bottom of the 4th but that was it for 9 innings, as Blanton went 7 innings allowing 1 run on 5 hits and Harden matched him with 7 innings while allowing 1 run on 4 hits. So it came down to a battle of the bullpens and the Phils bullpen was thankfully just a little bit better, thanks to some luck and a sterling performance by Chan Ho Park. In the top of the 9th Brad Lidge got the luck perfectly blocking a ball off the bottom of his foot and right to Jimmy Rollins just as he tagged the bag at second and gunned to first for an inning an ending double play. Park on the other hand simply pitched lights out with scoreless frames in the 10th, 11th, and 12th innings. Of course Park also got a little luck in the 10th inning as Raul Ibanez made an incredible diving catch to end the inning. Anyway in the bottom of the 13th inning Jayson Werth finally ended the marathon, crushing a walkoff 3 run homer for a 4-1 win. All told the Phils bullpen tossed 6 scoreless innings, and I don't think I have ever seen them look better, particularly Park. It was huge for him to go 3 innings like that, because other than him the Phils didn't really have to use up their bullpen and everyone except Park can probably still pitch tomorrow. The Cubs on the other hand literally used up everyone in their bullpen except the closer Kevin Gregg. So if tomorrow's game is close like this one which it could be with Carlos Zambrano and Jamie Moyer on the mound the Cubbies will be screwed. With the win tonight the Phils have now won 10 in a row, which makes them the first defending world champion to post a 10 game winning streak in over 30 years. That doesn't mean they're a lock to repeat, but it does say something about their talent level and commitment. Anyway so the Phils are now 53-38 overall and still 6.5 games up in the NL East.