PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils finished their series with the Braves this afternoon, well sort of. The first half of the game was in the afternoon, but a rain delay pushed the conclusion into the evening. At any rate Cliff Lee got the start and pitched well, but the delay forced him to leave after the 4th inning. Fortunately by then the Phils had already built a 4-1 lead, thanks to an RBI double by Ben Francisco in the 3rd inning, an RBI double by Raul Ibanez and an RBI single by Pedro Feliz in the 4th inning, and finally a triple by Chase Utley in the 5th inning. Then the rains came before the two teams could begin the bottom of the 5th inning. From there Tyler Walker and Sergio Escalona combined to get the Phils to the 8th inning with the lead intact. Ryan Madson took it from there with a 1-2-3 8th. Finally in came Brad Lidge to get the save in 9th, and after allowing a 2 out run, he was able to close out a 4-2 Phils win. This was Lidge's 31st save of the season thus far which is not too bad for a guy who has also blown 10 saves this season. Really though this was an impressive afternoon for the Phils bullpen and they would not have won if it hadn't been. The Phils scored 4 runs today without hitting a single homerun. That's a good sign for a team that had been struggling to score without the long ball. With the win today the Phils also took the series from the Braves and reduced their magic number to just 6 now. Overall they are now 87-61 and back to 8 games up in the NL East.