SNAKE CHARMING

It did continue to rain on Friday, but Padilla took his turn anyway. The D'Backs are only in town this one time, so the teams and the league were forced to schedule a twi-night twin bill on Saturday. Vicente gave up an early run on a Tony Clark homer in the second. As Paris Hilton would say, he's hot. George Steinbrenner is asking, "Where was that in the ALCS last year?" Abreu answered in the third with a two-run shot off Javier Vazquez, who Steinbrenner saw pitch a lot like this last year. The Phils exploded for six runs in the fourth on, among many other hits, Abreu's second homer of the game, effectively putting the game away if not for the continued entertainment value provided by the bullpen. Robbie Tejeda is looking more Adams-like every time out. The Snakes had the tying run at the plate at one one point before Frenchie Cormier got Jose Cruz. Jr. to ground into a rally killing DP to end the 8th. The game 1 final was 10-6, with Jim Thome adding an upper deck homer and Lieberthal singling in a run to complete the Phillies scoring.

The nightcap pitted ace Brett Myers vs. Russ Ortiz, a guy who normally takes four hours to pitch a game, walks about 15, and somehow manages to beat the Phillies almost every time. It goes to the strength of the roll the Phils are on that none of that happened. Maybe it's because Ortiz is not a Brave anymore. The D'Backs got on the board early again on a Luis Gonzalez RBI single. Myers was laboring, looking very Ortiz-like, but he was able to strike out Troy Glaus, and then, after a wild pitch and a Shawn Green walk, Jose Cruz, Jr. and Chad Tracy to wriggle out of the bases-loaded predicament. The Phils tied it on only one hit, a single to center by Polanco after a leadoff walk by Lofton (Rollins was being rested). A couple of fielders choice's later, the game was even at 1-1.

Both pitchers settled down until the 5th, when Alex Cintron and Luis Gonzalez hit back-to-back solo homers off Myers. Myers was out of gas after six, so Charlie Manuel sent up Endy Chavez to hit for him to lead off the bottom of the sixth trailing 3-1. Ortiz was still in there, having retired 15 straight, and more amazingly, walking none since the first inning. Chavez started off the inning with a single, and then scored on Kenny Lofton's triple on one hop off the 365 sign in left center. Placido Polanco even more amazingly, followed with a go-ahead homer, only his second of the year, and suddenly, it was 4-3 Phils. Ryan Madson, who had been spared any game 1 duty, barely, came on to pitch two scoreless innings, and just to prove the first homer wasn't a fluke, Polanco hit another one, this time off the Javier Lopez who didn't use to demoralize us in Atlanta. Billy Wagner came on in the 9th, and the D'Backs killed their own rally by trying a double steal with two outs. Todd Pratt fired to second to get the trail runner Luis Gonzalez by five feet. Thank you very much. The final was 5-3, completing the doubleheader sweep and moving the Phils to 2 games over .500.

Yesterday, my wife and I attended a Wilmington Blue Rocks game in lieu of me napping in front of the HDTV. It was a little warm out there, finally. The best part was that it was "The Dog Days Of Summer", and people brought their pooches to the park. We had a massive German Shepherd at the end of our row, and a little brown poodle named Amber was shading herself under the seats in front of us. The Salem Avalanche players came to the fence and were loving on the puppies, too. The Rocks went out and played like dogs, surrendering an early 2-0 lead and losing 3-2. Rocks manager Dann Bilardello has a very un-Theo like approach to the game that he'll have to straighten out if he wants to make it to the big club. He sent a runner home with one out on a short looper to right. As we know, the Red Sox like to play it station to station unless Damon or someone else reasonably fast is running. Of course, the runner was cut down easily. Later, Dann ordered his cleanup hitter to sacrifice. No thanks, please, we're Moneyball. That move didn't work either, by the way, resulting in a meek pop-up. Get with it, Dann.

As for the Phillies, they sprinted out to another quick lead, 6-0 this time. Mike Lieberthal got the break of the day when his double off the wall was ruled a home run after Charlie Manuel gave the umpires a grounds rules refresher, which only served to help them blow the call. Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin was ejected, and for good reason, since that ended up being the winning run. The Snakes chipped away at the lead against Randy Wolf and the bullpen, especially the bullpen. Our pal Cormier gave up Luis Gonzalez' 300th home run in the 8th to make it 6-5. Pat Burrell hit a bomb in the bottom of the 8th for a 7-5 lead, and Wags held on to barely get the save after giving up an RBI single to who else, Tony Clark, in the 9th for a 7-6 final.

This afternoon's series finale has Cory Lidle facing their putative ace, Brandon Webb. When the NL East merry-go-round stopped Sunday night after the Mets doubleheader with the Giants, your Washington Nationals (?) are now in first place, a half-game better than Atlanta. We're tied with the Mets at 30-27, a game out in third place, and the Florida Marlins (!) are in last place, having lost 8 of 10. I love this. Any team can go 8-2 and take a 3 game lead, or go 2-8 and wind up in dead last. I'd love it more if we keep winning 8 of 10 for a while, and the Braves would lose 8 of 10, of course. Looks like I picked the right year to start blogging the Phillies.