Phils almost No-Hit against the Dodgers

It has been a rocky last couple of weeks for the Phillies and the team took another dip last night when another quality start by Roy Halladay was wasted in Los Angeles.

The Phillies (73-58) were shutout for the 11th time last night as they were blanked by the Dodgers, 3-0. Los Angeles' starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda took a no hitter into the eighth inning when Shane Victorino lined a clean single to right field with one out in the inning to end the bid for Kuroda. Philadelphia had runners on first and second with one out but they got no closer as Carols Ruiz struck out and Mike Sweeney grounded out to end the inning.

Kuroda picked up his 10th win on the season and went 7.2 scoreless innings only giving up the one hit and struck out seven while only walking two batters.

It wasn't surprising to see Kuroda baffling the Phillies last night because in his career he has done exceptionally well against them, as he has an ERA under 1.00 against Philadelphia and has effectively silenced the Phillies lineup in his four starts, as the team is collectively hitting .084 against the 35-year-old. 

The Phillies are enduring another hitting cold stretch as the team in their last four starts is hitting a combined .137 and has scored more than two runs only twice in their past 13 games.

Ryan Howard has been a big concern since his return from injury as he has not picked up where he left off when the hit the DL. Howard in the month of August has a terrible average of .111 with no home runs and only one RBI. Compare that to the month of July where he hit .285 with eight home runs and 26 RBI.

And to make matters worse, since Chase Utley's return to the lineup he's been ineffective as well. Utley has hit .147 with three RBI in his last nine games and is only hitting .183 with no home runs and four RBI since his return against the San Francisco Giants on August 17th. 

If you are looking for one positive out of this bad recent stretch of play, it's the pitching because if you look at the last 12 games for the Phillies, the team's ERA is those games is 2.62.

Roy Halladay took to the mound last night and struggled early before settling into a nice groove and getting through seven innings while giving up 10 hits which is three shy of his season high against Cincinnati on June 30th.

In those seven innings, Halladay gave up only three earned runs and only walked one while striking out four batters on the night.

Halladay has lost his last two starts after winning his previous six starts and is currently stuck on 16 wins.

Roy finishes the month with a 4-2 mark and a ERA of 2.51 and went seven innings or more in all of his August starts and if we look back further than that, he has gone seven or more innings in 13 out of his 14 starts. The man has been pretty consistent since becoming a Phillie and you've seen my case as to why he should be this year's NL Cy Young and other media outlets are starting to come around as well.

The Phillies fell under the .500 mark last night on the road and now have a record of 31-32 away from home and also fell to three games back in the NL East, but they still have their 1.5 game lead in the NL Wild Card.

Philadelphia will need more good pitching tonight from Kyle Kendrick if they want to maintain their standing in the NL East, because the Braves are on a roll right now as they have won three games in a row and two of them have been in walk-off fashion.

Kendrick on the season is 8-7 with an ERA 4.64 and is 1-2 is his last three with a 4.91 ERA. In his last 24 innings pitched against the Dodgers, Kendrick has an ERA of 8.14 so as you can see Los Angeles hasn't been kind to Kyle over the years, but a good start from Kyle tonight can change his and the team's fortunes for the better as they look towards September.

It's Been One of Those Weeks

The past week at Citizens Bank Park marked what should have been a very winnable stretch for the Philadelphia Phillies who began this ten game homestand last Tuesday against the NL West and Wild Card contending San Francisco Giants.

After that very important series, were challenges against the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros. The Phils were able to get two out of three against the Nationals, but have imploded against the Astros and part of that has been umpire fueled. 

Philadelphia has been fortunate enough to not have lost any major ground in both the NL East and Wild Card race because the Giants and Braves are going through mini slumps of their own.

Three straight days. three winnable games, three bad losses for the Phillies can be summed up in a couple words: costly mistakes and bad umpiring.

On Monday, in the bottom of the sixth inning when the Phils were up by a run with a chance to score more after an intentional walk to Carlos Ruiz, Jayson Werth was picked off of second base in a blunder that ended the inning and a opportunity for more runs and don't get me started on Rule 7.08.

Game two of this four game set was bizarre to say the least and after four plus hours of baseball, the Phillies threatened to win the game in the bottom of the 14th when third base umpire Scott Barry apparently had his period.

Barry instigated and mocked and ejected Ryan Howard who held up on two pitches which became a critical strikeout with men at second and third with two outs. I have never seen such a blatantly confrontational stance to that degree from an umpire, and he should be disciplined for such outrageous actions.

And yesterday, the Phils made another error on the base pads, it was very reminiscent of game one in the series when in the bottom of the seventh Ben Francisco stumbled over third base when backtracking of was picked off third with the Phillies down a run and runners at first and third.

The Phillies only got one more hit the rest of the game and lost by a run, wasting another good start by Roy Halladay on the mound.

That's how you get three consecutive losses by four total runs to a team 15 games out of first place.

Another recurring issue the Phillies have had this season is random power outages, this team has sputtered in relation to their offense. The Phillies have scored two or fewer runs in six of their last seven games and they're 2-5 in that stretch.

In the process, the Phillies remain 2 1/2 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East and are virtually tied with the San Francisco Giants for the NL Wild Card lead.

Philadelphia will have a chance to salvage at least one game in this four game set when Kyle Kendrick goes to the mound today in a 1:05pm start time against Wandy Rodriguez of the Astros.

Kendrick is 8-6 on the season with an ERA of 4.58 and hasn't pitched well in his last three starts going 1-2 with an ERA of 6.32 and has had mixed success all season long. He's currently in the midst of another bad month, look at these numbers:

April W/L Record and ERA- 0-1: 7.61
May W/L Record and ERA- 3-1: 3.13
June W/L Record and ERA- 0-1: 4.60
July W/L Record and ERA- 2-1: 3.34
August W/L Record and ERA- 2-2: 5.40

Hopefully this means that Kendrick is due for a hell of a September.

Roy Halladay: Worth the Price of Admission

The argument all year long has been about whether the Phillies made a mistake in trading away Cliff Lee, but the better observation should be about how valuable Roy Halladay has been in the starting rotation and how he's gotten this team to where they are right now.

Halladay is 16-8 this season and that's with the struggles he's had to endure in regards to the Philadelphia offense costing him a couple victories this season. 

Even with some of the run issues Halladay experienced around the All-Star break, he's still gotten to within four wins of the 20 win mark and would be the first Phillies pitcher to reach that mark since Steve Carlton in 1982.

It's the first season Halladay has had the opportunity to pitch in a true pennant race and he has stepped up to the challenge as one of his more impressive numbers has been the microscopic ERA he's put up of 2.16 and in his last nine starts he's only given up more than four earned runs twice. 

Roy has put together an amazing campaign for NL CY Young even though, for some reason, he hasn't been mentioned too often. Halladay leads the NL in innings pitched with 17 more innings than Adam Wainwright. 

Halladay also leads the league in strikeouts with 180 and Halladay has never led the league in strikeouts, this has been a historic season for the seven-time All Star and it couldn't have come at a better time for Philadelphia as Halladay has been an important factor in the Phillies staying in the race and making another second half run. 

Halladay has a really strong case for the NL's Cy Young award, as last night Roy won another 1-0 game and in the process lowered his ERA as the Phillies beat the Nationals. It was the third 1-0 game that Halladay has won this season. 

Having a top of the line pitcher for an entire season has been a new concept for the Phils, since in years past if you exclude Cole Hamels, Philadelphia has cycled through guys like Adam Eaton, Freddy Garcia, Kyle Lohse and Jon Lieber. This team hasn't had a definitive ace since Curt Schilling who left the city of brotherly love in 2000. 

Halladay's biggest competition for the NL Cy Young is Colorado's Ubaldo Jimenez, St. Louis' Adam Wainwright and Atlanta's Tim Hudson. 

Hudson is definitely the hottest pitcher at the moment with an ERA of 0.93 in August with a record of 3-0. 

Jimenez struggled through the month of July, giving up four or more earned runs in three of his five starts and has a ERA of 6.04 for the month. In August, he has righted the ship winning two of three starts and has an ERA of 2.05 while holding a phenomenal season record of 17-3.

Wainwright also has 17 wins on the season and leads the league in ERA, and Adam has become the popular pick of the moment as he has pitched seven or more innings in four straight starts without giving up more than three earned runs in any of them.

So Roy has a lot of competition down the stretch but Phillies fans are enjoying the fact that every five days is as close to a lock as it can get with Halladay on the mound and the fact that he has won six starts in a row bodes well for what is still to come down the stretch.

Phils Don't Gain Ground in Division

Tonight marked the 100th consecutive sell out at Citizens Bank Park and they fans were treated to...nothing, really. The Phils were stifled through eight innings tonight as they missed an opportunity to gain a game on the Atlanta Braves who lost to the Washington Nationals earlier in the day.

The Phillies (68-52) lost a snoozer tonight to the San Francisco Giants last night by a score of 5-2 as Philadelphia was stifled by Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez who baffled Phillies hitters all night long.

Sanchez dominated from the start, he only allowed one hit entering the ninth inning and no one reached second base for the Phils against him. Sanchez had a streak in the game where he retired 15 consecutive batters.

It was a quiet night for what should have been a celebration of what the Phillies have been able to achieve over the past three plus seasons in Philadelphia and it has shown at the gate with last night marking the 100th consecutive sellout at the Bank, but the crowd was silent most of the night because the bats were for the most part.

There wasn't much to cheer about until the bottom of the ninth when the Phillies were able to get a couple base runners for Mike Sweeney who doubled in the first and last runs of the game for Philadelphia.

Sanchez won his eighth game of the season and gave his biggest performance of the second half by pulling the Giants back to within one game of the wild card lead. He improved to 3-1 in his career against the Phillies and did it in convincing fashion.

Cole Hamels fell behind early and never recovered when he gave up three early runs in the first inning. Hamels worked through five gritty innings giving up five earned runs on seven hits while striking out five and in the process he picked up his 10th loss of the season.

It's unfortunate that Cole picked another loss tonight as he still hasn't seen any run support in his recent starts and the team didn't score a run for Cole again tonight and they haven't scored a run for Cole in three starts.

Cole gave up four or more runs tonight for only the second time in his last 10 starts. Looking at Hamels' previous starts, he was given only eight runs of support in his last six starts and that's not even mentioning his two previous starts which were back-to-back 1-0 losses to the Mets. Cole now drops to 0-3 in August with an ERA of 3.67.

The Nationals are rolling into town now, fresh off a nice win over the Braves on Thursday afternoon and are going to face Roy Halladay. He will look to help the Phils avoid a losing streak and stay on top in the wild card hunt. Another sell out crowd awaits the best pitcher in the NL on Friday night.

Phils Continue Hot Streak

The Phillies are looking like their usual second half selves as they extended their winning streak to four games with their win over the Giants tonight.

Philadelphia (68-51) got the win over the San Francisco Giants 8-2 tonight to jump to a season high 17 games over .500 on the season and they gain another game on the Giants in the NL Wild Card race to increase their lead to two games. The Phillies were led by a three-run home run from Jimmy Rollins in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Pitching has been stellar for the Phillies and is clearly the key to the ascension from third place to the top spot in the wild card race and within two games in the NL East.

Having three starters that the team can rely on constantly in Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt has been a huge advantage over the past couple weeks as the Phillies have won 20 of their last 25 games.

The bats have done pretty well for themselves over the last couple of nights as well and tonight was a huge night at the top of the order for Jimmy Rollins and Domonic Brown off the bench.

Rollins had three hits and three RBIs on the night including the three-run smash in the forth. Jimmy has been hitting better as of late, he's hitting over .300 since July 22nd and has been that steady presence at the top of the order that the Phillies rely on every night.

Domonic Brown on the other hand, has been riding the bench since the return of Shane Victorino to the lineup and since being squeezed to the pine, Brown has told reporters that he's been living in the batting cages to maintain his swing and tonight he got a chance in the eighth inning as a pinch hitter and the extra BP paid off as Brown hit an upper decker shot for the second home run of his career.

Joe Blanton performed well on the mound tonight continuing the string of good starts for Philadelphia. Blanton went 6.1 strong innings giving up eight hits and two earned runs while walking none and striking out seven. Joe gave up a couple home run balls but other than that, it was a good sight to see Blanton coming back after a quick home run in the first to get a quality start.

The Phillies are looking for the sweep tomorrow night as they send Cole Hamels to the mound and hopefully Hamels can get a win as he has not gotten any run support recently and is stuck on seven wins for the season. Hamels in his last seven starts is 1-2 with a 1.81 ERA, wow, can we get Cole some runs tomorrow night, please!!!

As The Favre Turns

We finally have confirmation on the Favre front, he IS coming back to the Minnesota Vikings for a 20th and potentially final season (I'll believe that when I see it), this man has been a national nightmare, a one-man soap opera basically dictating ESPN's news cycle.

How ridiculous have the last couple days been, with reports about Favre "boarding a plane heading north" and a report about three Vikings players going to his home to beg Favre to come back and blah, blah, blah. Not to mention what the Worldwide Leader did a couple weeks ago jumping the horse on those Favre retirement reports and driving logical sports fans up a wall.

What we got then and are getting now is a retelling of the awesome story of Brett's career and how well he played the game and jubilation he has in doing so. How about someone calling the man out on his constant BS?

Year after year, Brett has thrown his team under the figurative bus with his non-stop indecision and lack of communication and the habitual lying. For the last half-decade, Favre has thought about ending his career and living out his life on his farm riding a tractor wearing Wrangler jeans, but intsead Favre has decided to reak havoc on whatever franchise will have him.

The Favre we all know and loathe today came to be around 2008 when he really started to invest in this retirement talk after blowing the NFC Championship Game which culminated in his official "retirement" which led to resentment by the man who retired towards the team that supposedly forced him out.

What resulted was a continous will he, won't he novel about the eventual Hall-of-Fame QB who plays with a child-like intensity.

My biggest gripe with Brett has been his insistence upon leaving his team in the cold about his mindset about everything. The worst thing that could have happened to the viewing public was Brett playing well last year which culminated in the same old ending, an interception ending yet another season.

Brett said after the season ended that he would decide quicker whether he would play this season and of course he didn't and it took three friends in the middle of August to go to Brett's house for him to say that he wants to come back for "them".

He acted like he wanted to play, but all the while he kept telling everyone how beat down and hurt he is and didn't keep contact with coach Brad Childress who stuck his neck out by letting Favre set his own timetable for his return to the team.

Minnesota missed out on various opportunities to secure another viable option at quarterback and in the process gave the keys to the franchise to Brett Favre. It amazing when you consider all the concessions they made for Favre, it's comprable only to what the Cavs did when they tried everything in their power to retain LeBron James.

You can not have any player dictate the course of your fanchise the way Brett Favre has because when you do, chaos ensues.

The Adrian Petersen example works perfectly here because as illustrated he missed a practice to attend a parade being held in his hometown and yet he was criticized was Coach Childress while Brett sat at home and waited until the second preseason game to announce his intentions and yet everything is just fine with that.

It sets a bad principle in the locker room despite the comments that go public about the players being okay with Favre missing time and returning to the team because if the team struggles this year, watch the stories that surface. It will be very interesting to see just how good Favre can be this year and if the Vikings have learned their lesson for an off season of confusion.

More Phillies, Eagles and West Virginia Coverage To Come

Sorry guys about the lack of posts, but from today forward What's ill will see increased activity with stuff about the Eagles, Phillies and the West Virginia Mountaineers. I'm a WVU student who will be working for the Palestra.net in the fall covering football and basketball and I will post my stories for the Palestra on this site as well and I will never be able to forget about my beloved Phillies.

With WVU football around the corner, coverage for that will begin next week and this site will be busier than it has ever been and I'm excited for everyone who reads the site now and a future visitors.

It should be an exciting year of transition for the Mountaineers who are starting sophomore QB Geno Smith this season following the departure of senior QB Jarrett Brown who was a face from the golden age of WVU football, as Brown was White's backup for many years before getting his first crack at the starting role last year.

Smith is starting the season with many people anxious to see if the highly touted recruit from Miramar, Fla is ready to take the reins for a program that has fallen from the nation's elite to Big East mediocrity. 

This is just a snippet of what to expect from What's ill as well as Pennant Race coverage and NFL Kickoff Weekend coverage. Thanks to everyone for reading and following What's ill.

Oswalt Gets 1st Win as a Phil

It took a couple tries but it finally occurred tonight in Roy Oswalt's first start in Philadelphia since the trade that brought Houston's ace to the city of brotherly love.

The Philadelphia Phillies (63-50) won a tight one tonight at the Bank when they beat the Los Angeles Dodgers by a score of 2-0. Raul Ibanez went two for three tonight with an RBI to extend his hitting streak to 18 consecutive games.

The story of the night was Roy Oswalt however and once again he impressed and baffled hitters through seven innings of work as he only allowed five hits and walked two while striking out five in a matter-of-fact manner to get his first win with his new team.

Oswalt wasn't flawless, but he showed tonight how good his B-game can be and it was enough to keep the Dodgers at bay and gave the Phillies a much needed win after the Braves won this afternoon to extend their lead to three games for a couple of hours.

With the Phillies victory, the Atlanta lead in the NL East is reduced once again to 2.5 games.

Oswalt got his seventh win of the season and still didn't get much run support as he's been getting about two runs per start this season and that held true tonight as well, but the offense did enough and the bullpen held up tonight after a horrible showing last night as Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge shut the door in the eighth and ninth.

But, there's another Phillies injury note from this one: Ross Gload went down in the bottom of the sixth as he hustled into second base, the word is that Gload suffered a right groan strain. Gload will be re-evaulated tomorrow. Mike Sweeney took over and eventually scored on a Raul Ibanez double to give the Phils as insurance run.

The Phillies got their 12th shutout of the season and getting back to Brad Lidge, he had a quick 1-2-3 inning and it was a sight to see for Phillies fans who were beginning to wonder about the effectiveness of the back end of the bullpen.

Over the last couple of starts from Oswalt, Phillies fans are really beginning to see just how dangerous the top of the pitching rotation can be. With the way Cole Hamels has performed this season added to the way Roy Halladay has dominated the National League, the performance of Oswalt over his last two starts provides a small idea of just how scary this team will be in the postseason.

Tomorrow night, Joe Blanton will take the mound in the rubber match of the three-game set against the Dodgers looking to build upon his best start of the season last Friday against the Mets when he went seven strong giving up only two runs. Hopefully it'll go as smoothly tomorrow night as it did tonight, but just without injuries.

Dodgers put a 15 spot on Phils

It was the first time in three years that the Phils have given upthis many runs as the pitching completely and utterly collapsed tonight, but every team is allowed one of these, and hopefully only one of these.

The Phillies (62-50) got stomped by Los Angeles Dodgers tonight by a score of 15-9 as they drop the opening game of a three-day set with their 2008 and 2009 NLCS counterparts. The Phillies pulled to within three runs of the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning when Ross Gload hit his sixth home run of the season to make it 7-4, but that was as close as the Phils got.

The Dodgers responded with four more runs in the top of the sixth to put the Dodgers over the 10 run mark as they made the score 11-4 and that was the game.

The Phillies were tied for the fourth best home record in the league coming into the night and that didn't mean much as Kyle Kendrick had his worst start since returning from his brief stint in the minors following a rocky start against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Kendrick on the night struggled from the jump as he allowed a quick run for LA but settled down to get through the second inning unscathed, but in the third inning, the Dodgers struck getting two runs on three hits and Kyle didn't get through the fourth inning.

Kyle's line on the night was not pretty as he gave up five earned runs on eight hits in 3.1 innings. Kendrick took the loss on the night, his fifth of the season.

The Phillies used seven pitchers on the night including recently brought up left hander Antonio Bastardo who didn't win any fans tonight only pitching 0.2 of an inning and giving up three hits in that span. So the bullpen woes for the Phils continue on a night they definitely needed relief and they didn't get much. The bullpen on the night gave up nine earned runs on 10 hits.

Raul Ibanez on a brighter note, kept his hitting streak alive as he increased that number to 17 games and counting as it took his last at-bat to extend it as Raul is hitting over .400 in those 17 games and has earned the right to keep his job in left field the rest of the season as there was an increasing sentiment that maybe Dom Brown would take that spot if Raul didn't pick it up offensively.

Another good note from tonight's game was Domonic Brown's first Major League home run, which came in the bottom of the sixth as he had a four RBI night for the Phils.

The Phillies fought to the bitter end as Philadelphia scored a couple runs in the bottom of the ninth but ran out of position players as they had to use pitcher Cole Hamels in a RBI situation, he flied out to end the game in the at-bat.

Everyone now will look ahead to Roy Oswalt's Philadelphia debut tomorrow night as he will take to the mound against Chad Billingsley for the Dodgers, who is having a pretty good season for LA, as he has a record of 9-6 on the year with a good ERA of 3.82.

Oswalt in his two starts as a Phillies has seen mixed results, he's 0-1 so far with an ERA of 4.38, but he pitched better in his last start against the Florida Marlins as he ran out of steam in the seventh inning. Hopefully he's not suffering from tired arm tomorrow night so the Phillies can maybe make up some ground in the wild-card and divisional races.

Vick's "Final" Chance

Michael Vick has been in the news over the last couple of months for all the wrong reasons and it involved a shooting at a Vick hosted event back in his stomping grounds in Newport News, VA.

There were many stories and articles regarding the event and I completely agree with the people who have said that Vick hasn't been remorseful in the least and I'm not sure what he proved to the commissioner but he clearly has him fooled.

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie remains steadfast in his support for the Eagles QB and it was obvious he would since he made such a big deal last summer about wanting to help Vick that it wouldn't have been easy to just release the embattled quarterback, but Vick should at least appear to appreciate the chance he's been given by Philadelphia. it seems like the only time he opens his mouth is to say how "unstoppable" he is and how he can't wait to start again, truly remorseful.

The signing of Michael Vick was a head scratcher in the first place and it's done more to distract the team than unite them.

Coach Andy Reid clearly isn't a Wildcat guy and it showed last season when Vick got on the field, he threw a total of 13 passes and ran the football only 24 times. There were no rhyme of reason to Vick's involvement and there was only a couple instances when he made a true impact.

In Game 13 for the Eagles, Michael Vick helped in a nice win for the team. Against the Atlanta Falcons, he threw for a touchdown and ran for another in a 34-7 win.

Other than that, there was the occasional five yard TD run and to his credit, he was the only sign of offense in the disappointing playoff loss to Dallas, but with Kevin Kolb taking over the reins this season from Donovan McNabb, rhythm is going to be key. Throwing Vick in there on third downs could stall drives and it certainly did last season.

A chance to rehabilitate a lost soul seemed to be the reason Vick was picked up last summer, but since that hasn't happened, you at least hoped that he would provide a different dimension to an explosive offense and he hasn't.

And how incompetent do you have to be to blow a great opportunity given to him by the Eagles to correct what became a mess of a career and he responds by continuing to be a headache.

Vick has been a mistake from the beginning and the Eagles needs to rid themselves of this basket case so he can go be "unstoppable" somewhere else.

Cole vs. Johan Recap

It was what we thought it would be, just with a different result. Two of the best in the NL East went at it last night and one mistake by Cole Hamels spelled his eighth loss of the season, a tough-luck loss for the Phillies as they couldn't drum up any offense with Johan Santana looking the best he's been in his last three starts.

Last night's game invoked memories of the three-game disaster up in New York when the Phillies were sweep and shutout in three consecutive games.

I'm not going to say that last night means the Phillies are cold again, but every so often you come up against a guy who has your number and Johan had it working last night and he also made a fantastic play in the bottom of the eighth when the Phillies got two singles from Jimmy Rollins and Raul Ibanez to lead off the inning.

Placido Polanco attempted to bunt Jimmy over to third but Santana did a masterful job of fielding his position and firing to third base and catching Jimmy in the nick of time and ruining what could have been a another eighth inning rally for the Phillies.

It's been an eventful weekend for the Phillies as they have been able to claw back into second place in the division and within a game of the Braves who won last night and dropped the Phils to two back as of this morning.

The loss last night also snapped the Phillies' five-game winning streak and 12 game home winning streak, their longest winning streak at home in 19 years.

This season has not been kind to Cole Hamels, record-wise. On the season Hamels now has a record of 7-8 on the year and has not won a game in almost a month. The numbers don't indicate the type of performance Hamels has had this year as it has been a return to 2008 form for the former World Series MVP.

Hamels has an ERA of 3.45 this season and has been on fire the last two months. In July, he had an ERA of 2.16 to along with a shocking record of only 1-1. And so far in August, he has one loss to go with an ERA of 3.21. Cole has gone at least seven innings in seven of his last eight starts and has 21 strikeouts in his last two games. And again, he only has a record of 7-8.

Today, Roy Halladay will take to the mound and he's been tough to beat at the Bank. In Halladay's last five starts at home, he's 4-0 with an ERA under one. In his last seven starts at home, he has gone at least seven innings in each start and has only given up more than two earned runs once in those starts.

You can say Halladay has adapted well to pitching in such a hitter's ballpark and has an ERA of 1.77 at home this season and he will look to win the series against the hated Mets today and help the Phillies pull closer in either the wild-card or the division.

Is This The Phils Turnaround...

Philadelphia won their third straight game tonight and have won 11 out of 13 to pull to within 2 games of the division lead as they Phils head into tomorrow's game looking for a sweep.

The Philadelphia Phillies (59-48) defeated the Florida Marlins last night by a score of 7-2 as they hand the Fish their third straight loss in a row as a new star made an impact for the Phils.

Rookie outfielder Domonic Brown shined again tonight as he drove in a career-high three RBI tonight and also hand a hand in a outfield assist as he has started out hitting .273 with the big league club as he tries out right field as Shane Victorino recovers with Jayson Werth filling in for him.

A familiar face also made an impact tonight as Raul Ibanez continued his resurgence at the plate. Ibanez had two hits and two RBIs on the night and extended his hitting streak to 12 games. He's hitting .418 in those last 12 games as he's increased his batting average to .269.

And the Phillies have steadily but surely climbed back into contention and faught back into serious contention even with the 15 Phillies who have hit the disabled list this season, this team have proven even with all the losses to this team's regular starting lineup, that the still have fight left in them and the front office still believes in this team as well as evidenced as the trade for former five-time All-Star first baseman Mike Sweeney.

Sweeney will replace the injured Howard for the next couple of weeks and will become the main right hander off the bench down the stretch for manager Charlie Manuel. Sweeney is expected to join the team tonight.

One final positive note from tonight's game was the play of pitcher kyle Kendrick who has transformed into a very competent option for the Phillies since the loss of Jamie Moyer. Moyer was the consistent low end of the rotation starter on the staff before his injury and now Kendrick has filled in really well and tonight he kept up his streak of quality starts only giving up two runs tonight over six innings of work and picked up his second cinecutive victory to improve to 7-4 on the season.

In the series finale, Roy Oswalt will take to the mound looking to improve upon his lackluster debut in Washington last Friday night when he gave up four earned runs in seven innings of work. An impressive Oswalt tonight would give Phillies fans a great feeling going into this weekend against the once again flailing New York Mets at Citizens bank Park.

Halladay Wins Phils Second Straight

It wasn't a perfect game tonight, but the Phillies still got the same result. A much-needed win after losing their star first baseman Ryan Howard with a left ankle sprain.

The Phillies (58-48) beat the floundering Florida Marlins tonight by a score of 6-1 as they moved to within two games of the first place Atlanta Braves. Philadelphia was fueled by good nights from Ben Francisco and Carlos Ruiz.

With so many Phillies regulars spending time on the DL, they have needed substantial help from unlikely sources. One source has been Wilson Valdez, who is filling in for Chase Utley, had two hits tonight and drove in a run.

Ben Francisco had a big night as he got the start in right field, with Jayson Werth in center replacing the injured Shane Victorino. Francisco had a three hit night with two RBIs and put the first Phillies run on the board with his fourth home run of the season.

There were some Phillies starters who came to play tonight as catcher Carols Ruiz followed Francisco's solo shot with one of his own in the second inning. Ruiz had a four hit day with two RBIs and his home run in the second was his fourth of the season as he increases his batting average to .294 on the year.

Roy Halladay took the mound hearing a lot about run support going into this game but came out of it with another victory, his third consecutive victory in a row and his first away from Citizens Bank Park since his perfect game in Florida back in May (if you don't count the Toronto series in Philadelphia).

Halladay went seven strong innings getting his 13th win of the year while only giving up five hits and struck out nine while allowing the one run. Halladay lowers his ERA to 2.17 and has been the rock-steady presence that the Phillies expected from him when he was acquired in the offseason and now to see what he has added to this rotation has helped Hamels when you compare his preparation this year, to year's past.

The biggest question now regarding the Phillies is, can they hold on until they get Utley and Howard back because those are the guys that have lifted the Phillies in the second half in recent years and so far, so good. the bench has played well in the absence of the numerous Phillies that have missed time this year.

Kyle Kendrick will take the mound tomorrow night as the Phils look for three straight and has pitched better since being sent to the minors after the debacle in St. Louis. In two starts, Kendrick has pitched 13.1 innings and has only given up two earned runs, so he's been better and actually had an ERA of 3.34 in July, so Kyle has progressively gotten better as the season wears on.

Phils/Marlins first pitch is tomorrow night at 7:10 on Comcast Sportsnet.

What's ill Note: Stay tuned for more articles regarding the Phillies and Eagles in coming days, I've been thrown through a loop following the San Diego trip and I'm working on more content for the website. Thank you to the readers who frequent What's ill!

Another One almost Bit the Dust

I've been in San Diego a week and boy did I miss a lot. The Phillies went from being dead in the water to being 2.5 games back in the NL East, the pitching staff went from being a question mark to being one of the best in the National League, if not baseball. And I missed a couple more injuries for the Phils.

The Philadelphia Phillies (57-48) salvaged the last game of a three game set today in Washington, beating the Nationals in extra innings by a score of 6-4. The Phils were fueled by Placido Polanco's three hit day as he drove in two RBI's, including the game-breaking single in the top of the 11th.

Philadelphia has won nine of their last 11 games and are currently 2.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves after trailing as many as seven games back in the division.

Cole Hamels got the start today and while he wasn't as good as he's been over the last month, he definitely was serviceable enough to power through seven innings while giving up four runs on six hits as he struck out ten and walked none. Hamels didn't get the win and has been stuck on seven wins for almost a month, his last win came on July 11th when he beat the Cincinnati Reds.

The big news this week was the trade for former Astros ace Roy Oswalt and he took the mound for the first time as a Phillie on Friday and struggled through six innings of action and gave up four earned runs on seven hits while striking out four as he picked up his 13th loss on the season.

But the thought of Oswalt added to the top of a rotation that features Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels makes this team postseason ready and better than they were last year, rotation wise at least.

But the biggest loss today was to slugging first baseman Ryan Howard injured his left ankle but he may avoid a DL trip, which would be great considering that just about every regular in the lineup has missed time for the two-time NL Champs.

Philadelphia has an off day tomorrow before traveling to Florida to take on the fourth place Florida Marlins with Roy Halladay on the mound. The Braves will be facing the Mets starting tomorrow night at Citi Field as the Phils hope to make up some more ground before the take the field Tuesday night.