Games of Tuesday, September 6, 2005 - Wagner Falls to Former Teammates, as Phils Lose 2-1

The Phillies continued their skid, falling 2-1 to Houston's Roy Oswalt, an All-Star this year who is having a fine year. Billy Wagner, coming into the 9th with the score tied at 1, lost to his former teammates for the first time, the night after his first-ever appearance against them. Pinch-runner Eric Bruntlett stole second and third off Wagner and scored on a RBI single by Jason Lane. The Phillies wasted a fine effort from Jon Lieber, who yielded only a solo HR to Craig Biggio.

The Phillies now trail Houston by 1 1/2 games in the wild card, and also fell behind Florida in the standings.

Other NL Games of Interest

Atlanta is now cruising toward its 14th consecutive division title. With 23 games to go, the Phillies have now fallen 7 games off the pace, and now trail Florida as well as the front-running Braves. Ergo, it will probably not be necessary to list the division race any longer. The wild card is the only hope.

The future Hall of Famer, the hard-throwing John Smoltz, did ironically help the Phillies out, by keeping the Mets off their heels. Smoltz was facing another future Hall of Famer, Pedro Martinez, who is far less likable. In the Braves' 3-1 triumph at Turner Field, Smoltz improved his record to 14-6, while Pedro dropped to 13-7.

Florida defeated Washington at RFK, thus passing the Phillies (for now, one hopes).

At the end of Tuesday, September 6, 2005

NL East

Atlanta 80-59 ---
Florida 73-65 6.5
Philadelphia 73-66 7

NL Wild Card

Houston 74-64 ---
Florida 73-65 1
Philadelphia 73-66 1.5
Washington 72-67 2.5
New York 70-68 4