Pat the Bat Strikes Back

The Phillies completed a sweep of Atlanta last night behind a mediocre outing by Cole Hamels, beating the Braves 4-3. It's hard to call a pitching performance in which Hamels only allowed two runs mediocre, but once again Hamels failed to live up to the billing of an ace by struggling early and letting the Braves respond every time the Phillies scored. He still picked up the win.

Pat Burrell's blast in the sixth inning proved to be the game winner, but much credit should be given to Jayson Werth, who earlier in the inning made the acrobatic move running to first and dodged a a tag by running sideways down the baseline. If Werth had been out the Braves would have been much more likely to get Ryan Howard out on the next at bat with the over shift. That would have made Burrell's homerun a solo shot and who knows how the game would have ended up. Instead it was a two run homerun that made the score 4-2. Ryan Madson got into some trouble, allowing the Braves' third run in the seventh.

While the Mets handled the Nationals behind the pitching of Johan Santana and used their offense to jump out to a 6-0 lead, the Brewers took a devastating blow in Chicago when this guy came up to bat in the eleventh inning...

Derek Lee finished off a come from behind victory against the Brewers with a walk off single. The Brewers blew a 6-2 lead in the ninth inning. After losing the game the Brewers find themselves 1.5 games behind the Mets for the Wild Card, which means the Phillies have a two game buffer for the playoffs.



Another day and things look good for the Phillies' playoff chances. Tough series this weekend in Florida though. The Marlins are hot and really put a hurting on the Houston Astros and their playoff hopes (Astros are now five games behind the Mets). The Mets will play in Atlanta this weekend. The Brewers play in Cincinnati.