Who needs a smoke?

Apparently there was some kind of big comeback for the Phillies last night.  Honestly, I was out seeing The House Bunny.  Okay, that's a lie, I watched the whole damn game last night and tee-hee'd like a little schoolgirl for the last 10 innings or so.

By all appearances, tonight should be a letdown, with scorching Johan Santana likely to dominate struggling lefty power pair Utley and Howard, with a slumping Burrell unlikely to make up for that.  Further, the eminently hittable Kyle Kendrick goes for the Phils.

We'll always have the 26th, everyone.

What else can really be said about last night's stunning 8-7 victory over the archrival New York Mets?

Observe the stark contrast between comeback kid Fernando Tatis and his showboating after key hits, and the cool, restrained reaction of Chris Coste -- who has endured an even more difficult road in professional baseball -- after driving in the winning run in the 13th inning.

The bullpen, a season-long strength, strapped on their collective gear yet again, allowing only a single run over the game's final 10 innings.  Rudy Seanez actually looked awesome.  Rudy SEANEZ, people.

Top and bottom of the lineup heroics, picking up the slack (again?) for the underperforming 2-5 hitters.

The cameramen's reaction shots of that Mets fan with the ridiculous chinstrap beard, hands on his head and alternating looks of joy and agony. 

The struggles of Pedro Martinez, arguably the greatest pitcher ever, who's now kicking and scraping to make it through five innings.  It's sad to watch and I honestly take no joy in it.

ALL THAT BEING SAID, for all practical purposes, a loss tonight leaves us in a worse position than we were yesterday afternoon.  Still a half game back, but with two fewer games left in the season.  A win tonight against Santana, heading into a sure to be excruciating series in Chicago, not only makes a big statement, but mitigates some of the damage the Phillies are likely to take this weekend from the juggernaut Cubs.  (Yes, I called the Cubs a "juggernaut").

Call me crazy, but this is one of the images I get in my head when I think of Brett Myers this year...

This was the epic battle performed while he was in the minors.  Good versus evil (though, in Myer's case, it may be evil vs slightly more evil).  Either way, it looks like mild mannered Brett Myers has fought off his demons and returned to us.  Sure, he ain't this good, but you know, I spent a lot of time saying he wasn't that bad earlier, so, I guess it evens out.

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The Phillies play the first game of a short two-gamer this week in Philadelphia -- the Mets' last (regular season*) trip to Philadelphia this year.

Two pitchers who both get by on guile -- one of whom used to have the raw stuff -- face off in South Philly, with Pedro Martinez and Jamie Moyer hoping to keep their respective team's hot streaks alive.

I feel like this news came out a few weeks ago (and that I whiffed on writing about it then), but since it's in today's paper, maybe not:

The Phillies will send eight players to the Arizona Fall League to play for the Mesa Solar Sox: righthanders Joe Bisenius, Andrew Carpenter and Pat Overholt; lefthander Sergio Escalona; catcher Lou Marson; infielder Jason Donald; and outfielders Quintin Berry and Jeremy Slayden.

It's an interesting group. Marson and Donald you probably know about: they're generally regarded as the top two position prospects in the system, and just played pivotal roles in the U.S. Olympic baseball team's bronze medal win. Bisenius, who turns 26 next month, has gotten off-track in the last two years after looking like a possible closer-to-be through 2006, but the team still seems to believe he has a big-league future. Carpenter's season got off to a dismal start; he showed up at camp overweight and was pounded at Reading for two months before being sent back to Clearwater. Successful again there, he's been much better since a return promotion to AA. Escalona I know very little about, but his strikeout numbers are intriguing.

Berry, a speedster without any power, and Slayden, a Greg Dobbs-type hitter with perhaps a little more pop, are both on the old side for prospects and project as extra outfielders in the majors. It's possible that the Phillies are thinking that one or both might gain some trade value with strong showings in the desert.

This week's home series against the Dodgers has been almost an exact mirror of last week's road set in Los Angeles -- timely hitting vs. lack thereof, late inning dramatics for the home team, and total domination in the win/loss column. 

Tonight the Phillies go for the four game sweep, effectively negating the four-game butt-whoopin' that they took in L.A. earlier this month.

Red-hot Brett Myers squares off against young Chad Billingsley.

The Phillies enter the night just a half-game back of the Mets, and could go into their two game series with the Mets a half-game ahead with a win and a Mets loss.  It's funny how no one seems to want to take control of this division.

With just a week left in the minor-league season, the Phillies’ clubhouse is about to get a little more crowded. Rosters expand to 40 men on September 1, and the Phils—with a short bench and at-times overworked bullpen—figure to utilize some relief. So who might we see for the last month of the season?

As he so often does, assistant GM Mike Arbuckle poured some cold water on fans’ hopes of seeing some of the organization’s more highly touted prospects. Shortstop Jason Donald and catcher Lou Marson, stars of the U.S. bronze medal-winning baseball team, are heading back to Reading from Beijing for now, and they’re unlikely to continue on to Philadelphia before the end of the season. About the best Arbuckle offers is that "both guys are making significant progress and have [earned]… consideration to be here at some point next year." The most prominent Reading teammate they left behind, outfielder Greg Golson, probably isn’t coming either.

(But that's okay; who could argue that there's any need for improvement on the part of the Phils' catchers, backup SS Eric Bruntlett, or pinch-hitter/pinch-runner/defensive replacement extraordinaire So Taguchi?)

Thus, probably nobody from Reading… well, unless you count this guy, who might get a recall but is pretty much certain not to appear in anything resembling a key situation. To be fair, his ERA in double-A is more than two runs lower than what he did in low-A…

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HERE WE GO!  This is the Phillies offense we have grown accustomed to over the past couple seasons.  The Phils have put 17 runs on the league's best pitching staff in two games.

They try to keep it going tonight against Hiroki Kuroda, who absolutely dominated the Phillies last week (7 IP/2 H/1 R/7 K).  Cookies Blanton mans the cupcake for the Phils.

Charlie goes with jonk's dream lineup again (Utley 2nd, Burrell 3rd, Howard 4th) which seems to be working pretty well so far.

The Phillies placed OF Geoff Jenkins on the disabled list Saturday with a strained right hip flexor suffered while legging out an infield single Friday night. Corner infielder Andy Tracy will take Jenkins' place on the roster, and Jayson Werth is now officially what he pretty much was in fact even before the injury: the everyday right fielder. For Werth, this is both a chance to make a huge impact on the playoff race and an audition for a fulltime job next season, in either outfield corner. 

At age 34, Tracy is pretty much the definition of "AAAA," a player who can help any team in the high minors but has never managed to stick in the big leagues. Today will mark his first day in a major-league uniform since 2004 with Colorado; for his career, he's a .224 major league hitter with 13 home runs in 263 at-bats. Here's his minor-league record. The Phils might have concluded that Tracy is a better pinch-hitting option off the bench than Mike Cervenak, who was up with the club earlier this summer; like Cervenak, Tracy can hit for power, but his much higher walk rate suggests a far more selective hitter. If he has a couple big knocks off the bench over the next few weeks and the Phils manage to make the postseason, it wouldn't shock me to see him on the playoff roster. 

We can debate what is a good sample and what is not, but I think everyone in the world can agree that 1 AB is not  (unless it is a Derek Jeter post season AB).  So often in my life does the small sample size end up biting me in the ass.  The odds are usually against it working out if you need a very successful play since very successful plays happen so rarely, but we had one, and it might be what ends up being the catalyst to putting the Phils in the playoffs.

What was this AB you may be wondering (or not)?

Friday, August 22nd, Bottom of the 4th inning, 1 on and 2 outs.

R Howard homered to left, P Burrell scored.

The homerun that may have saved the season.

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