TRAIN-ING DAY

So much for the Jon Lieber renaissance. Everything was looking good until the sixth inning, when pitcher Dontrelle Willis inside-outed a one-out single past David Bell down the left field line. Über-pest Juan Pierre, very high on the most-hated list headed by Chipper, followed with a slap hit past Bell through the hole (Bell should have had this one, but he alligator-armed it for some reason). Then the Phils got one of those breaks that usually foretell happy endings. Paul Lo Duca hit a swinging bunt up the first base line which Lieber pounced on and fired to first. The ball hit Lo Duca in the helmet and caromed down the right field line, allowing Willis to score. Immediately, home plate umpire Eric Cooper called interference on Lo Duca, who went into a fit of apoplexy, apparently unaware of the rule stating that the batter-runner must stay in foul territory while running to first. Replays showed that he was clearly in fair territory the entire time, even touching the grass as he got closer to the bag. This made it two outs with runners still on first and second for Carlos Delgado. Chris Wheeler, who was doing play-by-play on Comcast Sportsnet at the time, mentioned that the Phillies were not out of the woods yet. Sometimes, even most times, I wish Wheels would keep his rampant pessimism to himself. Delgado proceeded to take a wayward cut fastball deep into the right field seats for a 3-1 Marlins lead. Miguel Cabrera followed by mashing a first pitch breaking ball at light speed over the Teal Monster to make it 4-1. Terry "We're Throwing In The Towel" Adams, or "The Bearded Hemorrhage" as Dennis Deitch of the Delaware County Daily Times calls him, came in to allow his usual run in the 7th. Bob Abreu stayed hot with an RBI single in the 8th, but there would be no comeback against the D Train, now 9-1 and steaming toward a Cy Young award. Final: 5-2 Fish.

Last night's loss drops the Phillies to 6.5 games back, with two more to play in Dolphins Stadium, followed by three in Atlanta. This would be a good week for Jim Thome to get hot, but last night's pinch-hitting attempt doesn't bode well. Coming up in the 7th as the tying run with two outs, Thome was utterly baffled by Dontrelle's breaking stuff, and struck out looking. I guess I don't understand why if he's not likely to do well enough against Willis to start him and give him four at-bats, you would elect to pinch-hit him in a critical situation against the same pitcher. That's our Charlie: counter-intuitive to the point of utter bafflement, and not in a good way.

Tonight, Brett Myers, who would be in the Cy Young race himself if the Phillies were any good, faces Josh Beckett. The Phillies hit Beckett hard earlier this month at Citizen's Bank, which would be encouraging were it not for Beckett's 0.62 home ERA, with ZERO homers allowed and .167 batting average against. Hey Wheels, chew on those numbers!