BROKEN THOME

We won another one! On the road!

Ryan Howard, as of yesterday the full-time first baseman for the Phils for the remainder of the season now that Jim Thome will be undergoing season-ending elbow surgery, crushed a salami in the ninth inning off beleaguered Dodgers closer Yhency Brazoban to propel the Phils to a 9-5 win.

Bobby Abreu hit another first inning homer, this time with only one on, to start the scoring. Jeff Kent answered with a three-run shot in the bottom half of the first. The Phillies tied it on a bases-loaded grounder by Brett Myers in the fourth. That's when the sandman took over for me. After I dozed off, the Phillies took a 5-3 lead on a Pat Burrell double and a Howard ground out in the fifth. The simmering volcano that is Milton Bradley re-tied the game with a two-run dinger off Myers, who ended up pitching seven decent innings except for the homers. Good thing this wasn't a home game or we'd have to endure more endless hand wringing about how much of a bandbox Citizens Bank Park is. I mean, sure it is, but does anybody think Dave Montgomery is going to tear out ten rows of $30 seats in left field? He'd rather pimp out his own mother. Knowing him, he may do that anyway, if she's still alive.

Back to the action, so to speak. The Phils blew an opportunity to take the lead in the eighth after Black Hole Sun #2, Mike Lieberthal (I guess Charlie doesn't watch Daily News Live), uncharacteristically doubled to lead off, and was pinch run for by Endy Chavez. Tomas Perez bunted Chavez to third, but then J-Roll whiffed and Lofton lined out to center to end the threat. I'm happy to have been sound asleep for that inning. Oogie retired the Dodgers in the bottom half of the eighth to set up Howard's game winner. Brazoban hit Utley to lead it off, and after Chase stole second, Bobby was given a free pass and Burrell drew another walk the hard way. I didn't see the slam, but according to ESPN, Ryan hit it to right-center, which is unusual for him. With the four-run lead, Madson was summoned, and he retired the Dodgers in order to rest up Wagner in case he's needed in game three. By the way, I'm going to stop calling them the Swingin' Bullpen Trio and start using names from RateItAll.com for famous trios, you know, to mix it up. Therefore, tonight's game was Bacon and Lettuce with no Tomato.

The Astros beat the Nats 7-6 to help them start a new losing streak in one-run games, we hope. We're back in second place in the wild card, still 1.5 games out, with the Nats and Marlins two games back. I'll bet you'll never guess what Atlanta did. I think that 30-5 run I predicted for the Braves is coming true. God bless 'em. We aren't going to catch them, that's for certain.