The Rangers had their fun last night, belting three impressive-looking homers, but the Phils' steady samba beat of singles and doubles (and one Abreu blast) allowed them to prevail by an 8-5 score. The Phillies jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the second. Thome lashed a hard single to center, and Utley drove a double into right field to put runners on second and third. Polanco followed with a liner that tipped off losing starter Ryan Drese's glove, which SS Michael Young tried unsuccessfully to barehand. The ball ended up in short left field, scoring Thome and Utley. Lieberthal reached on an infield hit to second base, and after Lieber whiffed on 3 bunt attempts, Rollins skied one to right center. Lieby forgot that there was only one out and was doubled off. This started a night of Lieberthal-hating that has seemingly been pent up in Phillies fans. I'm not sure exactly why. As someone has noted, Lieby is second in the NL in catcher VORP, or Value Over Replacement Player, which is a cumulative measure of the value of a given player relative to a "replacement-level" player at that position, who is essentially someone you could sign off waivers or out of Triple-A. What it means is, we can't really do much better.
The Phillies added more in the 3rd, on singles by Abreu and Burrell, a walk to Thome, a fielder's choice by Utley, and a single by Polanco. Buck Showalter, once derisively referred to as "the guy who invented the game" by Ozzie Guillen, decided to pitch to Lieberthal instead of putting him on to face Lieber. Lieberthal responded against new pitcher Joaquin Benoit with a two-out hit to score the third run of the inning to make it 5-0. Then the Rangers woke up. In the fourth, Hank Blalock hit a laser beam into the right field stands with a man on, and after a Kevin Mench walk, catcher Rod Barajas homered deep to left center beyond the 385 sign on a Lieber crush-me slider to make it 5-4.
Benoit retired the final 10 hitters to face him before he was relieved by lefty Ron Mahay after a curious move in the top of the 7th. Alfonso Soriano, who had been held out of the lineup with a bad hammy, pinch-hit for Benoit and singled, and Showalter brought in Mahay, his next relief pitcher, to pinch run. I don't think I've ever seen that in all my years of watching baseball. Maybe Buck did invent the game. Mahay was quickly forced at second to end the inning, and then only retired one of the six batters he faced in the bottom of the inning to help give the Phils a four-run cushion. It could have been more but wasn't thanks to boo-magnet Lieberthal, who hit a weak tapper to the mound with the bases loaded. Everybody's second favorite object of derision, Charlie Manuel, then heard it from the crowd when he let Rheal Cormier (third favorite, if you're counting) hit for himself with the bases still loaded and the lead only 8-4. Frenchie weakly struck out, of course, drawing more vitriol from the crowd. I'd hate to hear what it would have been like if we were losing.
As if to validate the catcalls, Cormier went out to start the 8th and gave up an instant home run to Michael Young which barely left the ground. He got the next two batters before Ryan Madson finished off Kevin Mench. Wags walked Mark De Rosa with two outs in the ninth, but struck out Andres Torres to preserve his 15th save.
Everybody else in the NL East won except for Florida, which dropped them into last place by a full game behind us. As I mentioned yesterday, tonight's game looks like a strategic give-away. Instead of pushing Myers to pitch on 3 days rest, we're throwing Robbie Tejeda. It'll be a good test of the roll we're on if we can somehow scrape out a win. Who knows, maybe Tejeda has what Gavin Floyd didn't. He was 2-0 with a 2.22 ERA in 5 starts at S/WB.
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