Joe Blanton was
again showing how dominant he can be in the second half of a season.
Last night in the first of 3 against Atlanta he went a solid 7
innings giving up just 2 runs on 7 hits and 1 walk, it was a pitchers
duel that was deadlocked through 8 innings. Jurrjens, pitching
for Atlanta also went 7 innings and gave up 2 runs on 5 hits and
1 walk. Both bull pens held it scoreless in the 8th inning, Atlanta decided
to go with Soriano in the 9th who gave up a homer to Howard which
broke the deadlock and that’s how it would stay with the Phillies
holding off a bottom of the 9th challenge from the Braves. That’s
the short version…

Blanton
may have a 3.88 ERA on the year, but since July 1st it’s just a 1.79
ERA…

…he’s been described as a ‘hulk’….he’s
definitely a workhorse for the Phillies, having pitched 139
innings already this year, his win/loss record this year does not
do him justice.

The Braves had a 1-0 lead going
into the start of the 4th inning, with Victorino leading off, Ryan
Howard was in the dug out, doing what I can only describe as an
impression of the character ‘Pedro Cerrano’…

…from the movie ‘Major
League’ …

…I am not sure if he was
praying, or even what or who he was praying too, but something happened,
Victorino got a hit to lead of the inning, then as Chase Utley
stepped up to the plate, Ryan Howard emerged from the dug out to the
on deck circle and….

 ….BOOM!!…Utley’s
quick short stroke took Jurrjens deep to put the Phillies on top
by a score of 2-1.

It wasn’t for long though,
the Braves battled back in the bottom of the inning to tie the
game at 2-2.

The 5th and 6th innings the
Braves did everything they could to get ahead of the Phillies,
but Victorino was there to save the day…

….it would stay at a 2-2
tie through 8 innings, both teams went to the bullpen to start the 8th,
both bullpens kept it a tie, it was the top of the 9th the Braves, had
Soriano on the mound the Phillies had Howard at the
plate….

….BOOM!!…. Howard
goes deep for the 28th time this year, but more importantly for Howard,
he went deep in consecutive days.

So the Phillies were
on top again bottom of the 9th, just 3 outs away from the win…last
year this was money in the bank, as they say, but this year, it’s a coin
toss, Lidge came on to close it out for the Phillies, the
tension mounted among the fans, commentators, and the Phillies
bench, somehow it wasn’t enough for Lidge to just get a simple
save, he had to make everyone even more nervous, by allowing a base
runner, then Ruiz saw something in Lidge’s face it
must have been that look of "I gonna blow this again" ,
Ruiz shot out to the mound and gave Lidge the "it’s
okay you can do this hug"…..

 ….eventually he
did, Lidge got the save and all was well again in the world of Lidge,
he even had a little swagger in his walk, a "I can do this"
type attitude…

Well the Phillies
win the first of the series in Atlanta, today it’s national on
Fox, except when I say national I mean everywhere except Ohio, so I have
to wait for the blackout expiration and watch it then, hoping I don’t
see the score in the meantime. Today we are hoping the real Cole
Hamels comes out to play and not the ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ version,
only time will tell….