PHILLIES NEWS

Fresh off a sweep of the Cubs the Phils traveled down to Atlanta to begin an important weekend series with Braves, who came into tonight 3rd in the NL East, 5 games behind the Phils. With Jair Jurrjens ,who nearly no-hit the Phils in his last outing against them, on the mound against Joe Blanton, the game was billed as a pitcher's duel and it did not dissapoint. Jurrjens held the Phils to 2 runs on 5 hits, both on a 2 run homer by Chase Utley, while Blanton held Atlanta to just 2 runs on 7 hits, thanks to a spectacular play by "the Flyin Hawaiian", Shane Victorino, robbing Brian Mcann of a sure RBI double with a leaping catch against the wall in the bottom of the 5th inning. In the 8th inning Ryan Madson quickly retired Atlanta in order to push the game to the 9th with the score still tied. There Ryan Howard slammed a solo homer to center field to put the Phils up 3-2. Then in the bottom of the 9th, in came Brad Lidge to close it out as usual, with the dreaded 1 run lead. First he allowed a 1 out single to Adam Laroche. Then he struck out Ryan Church for out number 2, walked Greg Norton to put 2 on with 2 out for Nate Mclouth. Mclouth took a pitches and then crushed a ball to deep right field, but it died just in front of the warning track, landing safely in Raul Ibanez glove for the final out. Thus, dropping the Braves to 6 games behind the Phils. While it was far from pretty it was nice to Brad Lidge to get through a save like this for once. Perhaps the karma that allowed him to stay perfect all last season, has finally returned just in the nick of time, or maybe he's still a liability. At any rate it's probably still a good idea to put Brett Myers in the back of the bullpen when he comes back just in case. It also seems that Ryan Howard has rediscovered stroke and that can only mean good things for the Phils going forward. I just hope tomorrow's game is so nerve racking because I am not sure my heart can take it. Anyway so the Phils move to 65-48 overall now and still 4.5 games up in the NL East.