Joe Blanton goes six strong for the win and the Phils find themselves riding a 5 game winning streak.
I have to say, it never seems like Charlie is on the ball with his starters. Even though it didn't come back to bite him, he pulled Blanton after only 85 pitches and 6 innings. However, Joe did win his 4th of year after only allowing 2 early earned runs and finally saw his ERA dip under 6 for the season. Chad Durbin and JC Romero each pitched scoreless frames to pick up holds and Brad Lidge made a second straight adventure of the 9th inning in picking up his 10th save.
The bats did just enough in this one to put the final nail in the sweep, with 2 6th inning runs being the difference. Greg Dobbs continues to come back to life with 2 hits in 4 at bats, raising his average to .216 on the season, including his 5th double. Don't look now, but in 40 July at bats, his most in any month so far this season, Dobbs is hitting .300. You see this all the time with pinch hitters. Most guys need more than 3 at bats per week to get their rhythm. Dobbs is rewarding Charlie for his faith, er, um, I mean after being forced back into the lineup due to injuries.
This win was the 500th for Charlie Manuel, good for 3rd all time for Phils skippers. He has 719 total, good for 70th all time.
The Phils are now only 4.5 games out of first place going into tonight and 3 back of the wild card. The time to keep the momentum going is NOW. They have 3 straight at home against an Arizona Diamondback team that just traded away it's ace for nothing in Dan Haren. 2 of 3 is a must and Hamels and Halladay both going in this series, a sweep should be a very real possibility depending on how Kyle Kendrick pitches in the third game of the set. Hamels will face former Phillie Rodrigo Lopez tomorrow as he goes for his 8th win of the year at 7:05.
Todd Zolecki seems to think that the Phillies will acquire Roy Oswal without having to give up Jayson Werth.
They're really going back to the well with some of these remakes/sequals:
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