Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - Phillies Flatten Braves, Move Into Wild Card Tie With Florida

Well, perhaps the NL East title isn't out of reach after all... The Phillies flattened the Braves, 12-4, on an extremely hot and humid night for mid-September, at Citizens Bank Park.

Just kidding. However, the fact remains that the Phillies have now won three straight from division-leading Atlanta, and when combined with Sunday's 11-1 pounding of Florida, have now taken four straight (and five of six, averaging over 8 R/game) overall. This is an astounding turnaround, since a week ago the Phillies were trailing Houston by 2 1/2 games, after being swept by the Astros at Citizens Bank Park.

In the first inning, the Phillies scored three runs (2 ER) and got four hits off Atlanta starter Horacio Martinez (11-9). The lead mushroomed to 7-0 at the end of three, when Ramon Martinez hit a grand slam out of the 8th place in the lineup (his first career slam and his first HR as a Phillie). The game was effectively over. (The slam was the 7th for the 2005 team and is just one shy of the club record, which unsurprisingly was set by the last NL pennant winners, the 1993 team.)

Cory Lidle (11-10) pitched five solid innings for the victory, allowing three Atlanta runs; Aaron Fultz, Geoff Geary, and Aquilino Lopez finished it up. The Phillies did not need to use Ryan Madson, Ugueth Urbina, or Billy Wagner, which is useful, given that Thursday isn't an off-day.

The one bright spot for Atlanta, as it continued to cede ground to St. Louis for home-field advantage in the playoffs, was the fact that Andruw Jones hit his 50th HR of the season tonight, and the 300th of his career. (It's hard to believe that Jones is only 28; remember that he was only 19 when he hit two HR in Game 1 of the 1996 World Series against the Yankees. He had never hit more than 36 before this year.) It came off Geary in the 8th and with the outcome long since decided.

Jimmy Rollins led off the game with a double, extending his hitting streak to 20 right from the get-go, and stole third after Jason Michaels struck out. (Rollins is the 16th Phillie since 1900, to attain a hitting streak of 20 or more games. Chuck Klein holds the club record, with a 26 game streak back in 1930.) Bobby Abreu drove Rollins in on an infield hit; Pat Burrell also picked up an infield single (I know "Pat Burrell" and "infield single" generally don't go together, but they did tonight). Chase Utley grounded a ball to 2B Marcus Giles, who couldn't execute the throw to first. Safe all around. RBI single by David Bell, sacrifice fly by Mike Lieberthal - Lidle staked to a 3-0 lead after one inning. Nothing to it - made it look easy.

Heroes Tonight:

Ramon Martinez: The only reason he was in the lineup, was due to the fact that Charlie Manuel likes to sit Ryan Howard against LHs. But the move paid off, as Martinez delivered a grand slam. Howard received a night off; he didn't even pinch-hit. Can't hurt, for a rookie down the stretch.

Martinez finished the night 2/4, 2 R, 4 RBI (tying his career-high), plus a walk. He can no longer be confused with the other Ramon Martinez, who used to pitch well for the Dodgers a ways back.

Jimmy Rollins: 3/5, 2 R, RBI
David Bell: 3/5, R, RBI
Mike Lieberthal: 2/3, 2 R, 2 RBI; with the big lead, Todd Pratt caught the last couple of innings.
Jason Michaels: 2/5, R, 3 RBI, w/ 4th HR of the year. He's in the lineup for average against LHP, not for power - but every little bit helps.
Pat Burrell: 1/1 w/ four walks - now has a career-high of 91 walks with 16 games to go.

Other NL Games of Interest

Washington continued its charge, beating the Mets again at Shea, 6-3. Esteban Loaiza (as previously noted, one of the coolest names in baseball history) won (11-10), Kris Benson lost it (9-8), he's 0-4 in his last five starts; Chad Cordero picked up his 46th save. The Nationals are now only three back of the Phillies and Marlins.

Roger Clemens opted to honor his late mother, who tragically passed away Wednesday morning, according to news reports, by going ahead with his scheduled start at Minute Maid Park. In a heartwarming story, Clemens and the Astros won, 10-2, with Clemens pitching 6 1/3 innings and allowing only one run, earning his 340th career win and improving his record to 12-7. For Florida, A.J. Burnett (12-11) took the loss.

The two other dark horses, Milwaukee and Chicago, both lost in extra-innings, to Arizona and Cincinnati respectively, to the detriment of their slim hopes.

At the end of play on Wednesday, September 14, 2005 (16 Phillies games remaining)

NL East

Atlanta...................................83-63....--- (Magic number 12)
Philadelphia.......................... 78-68.....5
Florida....................................78-68.....5

NL Wild Card

Philadelphia..........................78-68.....---
Florida...................................78-68..... ---
Houston................................ 77-68..... 0.5
Washington.......................... 75-71..... 3

Back of the Pack

Milwaukee........................... 72-73..... 5.5
Chicago................................. 72-74..... 6
New York............................. 71-74.....6.5 (it's over for them)