Its funny, it seems that the streaking Phillies have begun to bring out the best in the Braves. The Phils won today, 6-5 behind timely hits and key pitching when it counts.
Roy Halladay was not great today. I don't want to say he wasn't sharp because his pitches were pretty good on the afternoon as evidenced by his 10 strikeout. However, 5 earned runs and 10 baserunners in 7 innings just isn't what we're used to seeing from Roy. It was good to see the offense finally pick him up when he wasn't at his best and get him to win number 14 on the year. Madson (3rd hold) and Lidge (14th save) finished things off. Speaking of the Mad Dog, he seems to have found his comfort zone after a shaky return from the disabled list, having only given up 1 earned run in his last 10 appearances. His ERA on the year is 4.01, down from 6.28 as recently as July 20th.
At the plate, Raul Ibanez extended his hitting streak to 16 games with a 3 run home run in the 3rd inning, his 11th of the year, and all of the sudden is up 57 RBI on the year after being left for dead. However, he is not the only regular left standing who is helping to carry the team right now. Jayson Werth's 3 for 4 day, which included his 16th home run, his 58th RBI, and 2 runs scored, left him hitting over .300 for the season. If these guys keep this up when Vic, Howard, and Utley get back, this is going to be the juggernaut offense we saw when the season first started.
Since the Giants picked a terrible time to cool off against the Braves, the Phils remain 2 games back of the division lead but only 1/2 a game out of the wild card. This team will get a well deserved rest tomorrow and then welcome the reeling Dodgers on Tuesday night as a familiar face, Vincente Padilla, will battle Kyle Kendrick. Padilla has been particularly hot since coming off the disabled list. After his first start on 6/19, he had an ERA of 6.67. He now sits at 3.09.
This is sort of older but still pretty funny:
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