First Place To Phillies: Welcome Back

Lookout Mets‘ fans, the Phillies are back in first place. The Phillies beat the Washington Nationals Wednesday night 8-5, as the Mets lost their second in a row to the Florida Marlins by a score of 7-5.

The win, coupled with the Mets’ loss, puts the Phillies back into first place, a half game up on the Mets and keeps them one and a half games ahead of the Marlins. The Phillies have won four straight and look to complete the sweep tomorrow night against the Nationals.

Phillies’ starter Jamie Moyer again held his opponent to three runs, something he has done every time out since June 1, despite having some early trouble. Moyer’s first pitch of the game was sent packing by Willie Harris over the fence in right center. Fifteen pitches later, catcher Jesus Flores followed suit with a two run home run of his own. Things looked grim, but Moyer showed the composure of the 20+ year veteran that he is and settled down, giving up only three hits the rest of the game.

The Phillies on the other hand erupted for five runs in the fifth inning to put the game away for good. The offensive barrage was started by the wily veteran himself. Moyer has proven himself to be one of the smartest baseball guys in the league. With Carlos Ruiz on first and no outs, Moyer came up to sacrifice him over. Showing bunt all the way, Nationals’ pitcher Tim Redding proceeded to throw three straight balls to Moyer. He then laid off and waited for the fourth pitch to see whether he would get another ball, or a strike down the middle. Moyer didn’t bite at the pitch over the plate. Then Moyer laid off the next pitch, having the confidence in his bunting abilities that even if it was a strike he would be able to pull of the bunt with two strikes. Ball four, Moyer walked. That brought up Jimmy Rollins with men on first and second with no outs.

Rollins doubled to deep right center, scoring Ruiz and moving Moyer to third, tying the game up at 3. Shane Victorino then singled to center, clearing the bases and putting the Phillies ahead for good. Chase Utley followed that up with his second home run in as many nights and that would be the end of Redding’s night. Closer Brad Lidge came in in the ninth inning to get his 26 save in 26 chances.

The Phillies’ recent success has been due in large part to the hot bats of Utley, Rollins, and Victorino. Utley went two for four on Wednesday; Victorino went three for five; Rollins went one for five but got his one hit when it counted the most. Coming into Wednesday’s game, Utley was riding a four game hit streak, going 6 for 16 with three RBIs; Victorino had a nine game hit streak going with 13 total hits and six RBIs; Rollins had five hits in his last three games with five runs scored during that stretch.

With the top of the lineup getting on base, it has allowed sluggers like Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell to put runs on the board. Despite allowing more runs then they’ve scored since June 1, the Phillies’ offense has come alive in the past week. They have scored 32 games in the last four games alone.

The Phillies have started to get hot at just the right time. They have bounced back after losing first place during the ugly series last week in New York and have won four games in a row. The Mets, on the other hand, are 3-3 since facing the Phillies and have lost starting pitcher John Maine to the sidelines with a mild rotator cuff strain.

The Phillies need to continue to build on this momentum and put some distance between them and the Mets and Marlins. It appears that the Marlins are about to become prohibitively better by acquiring Manny Ramirez from the Boston Red Sox, so each win is huge.