TRANSITION GAME

I actually sat down and tried to watch this game from the beginning. Pat Burrell rewarded me with a three-run dinger off Tom Glavine in the first inning. Glavine just isn't getting the corners any more. I'm not sure if it is QuesTec, or Sandy Alderson and his new union-busted umpires getting back at him for being such a big union guy, but that pitch five inches off the plate that used to be rung up with regularity is nearly always called a ball now. Bobby Abreu took advantage of a couple of Glavine-former-strikes to work out a walk ahead of Pat, and he later singled in a pair of runs in the second inning to make it 5-0.

As we've all heard, Jim Thome and Kenny Lofton (big surprise) are on the 15-day disabled list. The Phils called up Ryan Howard and Marlon Byrd from S/WB to fill their spots. Howard was in uniform for the game last night but did not start, because of the lefty Glavine. In my opinion, this can only help in the short term. Thome was slumping badly, probably because of his back injury, and Howard's bat should be an improvement. Byrd and Michaels probably won't be much different than Lofton and Michaels, especially if they just give Michaels the centerfield job full time. He's earned it.

The Phils tacked on three more in the fourth. Abreu drove in two runs with another single and scored the third one on a David Bell single. I hope Bobby's out of his reality-TV-induced funk. Glavine couldn't make it out of that fourth inning, and the rout was on. Cliff Floyd hit another huge home run in the bottom of the fourth to make it 8-1, but the Mets never threatened. The final was 10-3. Tim Worrell managed to raise his ERA to 8.10 by giving up a run in the ninth. He and The Thing need to seriously consider another line of work. If only Wade had the wherewithal to find better alternatives.

Now, I tried to watch this game, but Comcast refused to let me. Since the Sixers were busy getting pantsed by the Pistons, Sportsnet wasn't carrying the Phillies game and Comcast instead had switched it to CN8, their penny-ante news channel. I have the High-Def DVR box on my downstairs TV, and CN8 was working fine there. I decided to catch the end of the game in bed, and upstairs, we just have the usual Low-Def Digital cable box. No CN8. No UPN either, which, coincidentally is the other Phillies station but had nothing to do with the Phillies last night. Weird. I rebooted the cable box, but that didn't help. With the score 8-1 at that point, I was hoping to enjoy a nice leisurely blowout of the Mets, but since the game was in hand, I decided to watch the end of the Kevin Spacey/Danny DeVito film "The Big Kahuna". If it had been close, I would have stayed downstairs. Really, I would have.

Wolfie takes on Jae Seo tonight at Shea. Wolfie pitched great against the Mets earlier this season, taking a shutout into the ninth. The Marlins and Braves have given him plenty of trouble, but that's to be expected. The Phillies are still four and a half behind Florida, who pounded Atlanta last night. Still plenty of time. Go Big Ryan!