PEARLS BEFORE SWOON?

A half-game. We're only a half-game out of the playoffs! How can that be?

Well, one of the reasons is the San Diego Padres. The Phillies completed a season sweep of the Padres on Sunday, wrapping up a 5-1 SoCal road trip. Friday's game turned on a first inning three-run homer by Pat Burrell, who has been an OPS machine in recent days. Jake Peavy was spectacular in innings two through seven, but Jon Lieber was a little bit better overall, holding the Padres to single runs in the first and fourth innings. San Diego nearly tied it in the fourth if not for their freakishly large right field power alley. Mark Sweeney connected on a center-of-the-plate fastball, driving it well over Kenny Lofton's and Bobby Abreu's heads. It seemed like an easy home run off the bat, but it didn't even reach the fence in the air, bouncing in front of the 411 sign. Sweeney was held to a double, and was left stranded to finish the scoring for the night at 3-2. Snap, Crackle, and Pop gave up two hits and struck out three in three innings.

Vicente Padilla faced off with Pedro Astacio on Saturday night. Both pitchers were brilliant through six, until David Bell finally drove in Pat Burrell with two outs in the seventh with a hard single to left. Oogie Urbina relieved Padilla in the eighth and walked leadoff hitter Ryan Klesko before striking out Brian Giles and Mark Sweeney. Urbina then walked Mark Loretta and had two strikes on Khalil Greene before yielding a long double to the wall in center. Klesko scored easily, but Lofton and Utley made perfect relay throws to nail Loretta and preserve the tie. Bruce Bochy opted to bring in closer Trevor Hoffman to start the ninth. Hoffman never looked comfortable, giving up three straight singles to Abreu, Burrell, and Ryan Howard, followed by a sac bunt by Bell and a sac fly by Mike Lieberthal. Jason Michaels ended Hoffman's dismal evening by tripling in the fourth run. Rudy Seanez then wild-pitched Michaels in to make it 5-1. With the save situation gone, Billy Wagner put his jacket back on in favor of Aaron Fultz. Fultz made Billy take his jacket right back off when Miguel Olivo led off the bottom of the ninth with a homer to the left field bleachers. After a one-out walk to Xavier Nady, Wags came on and retired the final two hitters for the save and a 5-2 final.

Sunday's game ceased to be a contest when the Phils sent nine men to the plate before making an out in the fifth inning. The final toll was seven runs on six hits and two brutal Padres errors. The first error was by catcher Miguel Olivo, who tried to get the force at third on Robbie Tejeda's sac bunt. The ball ended up in left field, scoring David Bell with the first run of the inning. Later, after starter Chan Ho Park had been pulled, ageless Eric Young, who had made a terrific diving play earlier on Kenny Lofton, blew a routine fielder's choice by throwing wide to second base. That opened the door for Pat Burrell and Ryan Howard to drive in three more runs. Tejeda made it through seven innings for the first time all season, and despite another inflammable Frenchie Cormier inning, the Phils held on to win 8-3. Tejeda lowered his ERA to 2.71.

As noted earlier, Houston lost two of three at home to the Bucs to tighten the wild card race to a mere half-game. The Astros stay home to face the Cubs, who played well to take two of three against the Cards at Wrigley this weekend. We travel cross-country back home to take on the pesky Nationals in what should be a grinding four game series, followed by the Pirates for three. Believe it or not, I have purchased tickets for the Friday game vs. Pittsburgh for what should be my only excursion to Citizens Bank Park this season. I finally convinced my Texas-born wife that at least Bull's Bar-B-Que would be worth the trip. I'll post some photos next week.

I'm still very skeptical we can win this playoff spot. There are simply too many road games left, and too many home games and way too many virtuoso starting pitchers for Houston. Also, Tejeda can't possibly stay effective with that BB/IP ratio, and Charlie can't keep flogging the Nina, the Pinta and The Santa Maria the way he's been doing without one of them breaking down. Throw in an inevitable slump from either Abreu, Burrell, and/or Utley, and we'll be lucky to finish out of last. The late August/early September dive has been the Phillies way for several years now. It's August 15th. Get ready.