Three words sum up Phillies loss

Kyle Kendrick stinks.

That's the end of my story.

Flyers seize control

Maybe the end of the year slump won't hurt the Flyers after all.

Limping into the playoffs, many people (myself included) had written off the Flyers, picking the seventh seeded Buffalo Sabres to upset the second seeded Flyers.

After a 1-0 game one loss, the doubt only grew more.

Not so fast.

After an exciting 5-4 win on Saturday to tie up the series, the Flyers took game three tonight, 4-2, go up 2-1 in the first round series.

Could the magic from last season be back?

Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

But, I must say that my confidence is a bit higher, especially with Brian Boucher in goal.

Boucher made 35 saves and was cool, calm, and collected.

The Flyers are 18-3 when they have a 2-1 series lead in their history.

I like the odds of them winning this series.

Let the growth of playoff beards continue.

Flyers and stomach knots

Playoff hockey is the most intense of all sports.

Every trip down the ice for the Flyers creates a sense of hope.

Every trip down the ice for the other team puts my stomach in knots.

Thus was the case tonight when the Sabres were all over the Flyers during the third period, trying to cut a two goal lead.

In the end, the Flyers held on for a huge 5-4 win.

Every time Buffalo had the puck I feared the worse - a tie game.

I could hardly eat my dinner. In fact, I stopped for about the last eight minutes of the game.

The only sense of relief from the tension was my son pretending his french fry was a hockey stick.

A quick laugh and then right back to my stomach being in knots.

But that is what is great about playoff hockey.

It's back and forth, with the possibility of a game changing in an instant.

As stressful as it is, I sure would like to experience this feeling into June.

The Flyers moved one game closer to that desire tonight.

Back-to-back complete games - just how I imagined it

This is exactly how I imagined it the morning I woke up to the news that the Phillies had signed Cliff Lee.

Wins, complete games, shutouts, lots of strikeouts.

Boy is it nice having multiple aces.

Not to be outdone after a complete game win from Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee was actually better.

The Phillies second ace pitched a complete game shutout, allowing only three hits and striking out 12.

Not a bad way to end a series, eh?

Lee was not perfect though. He did allow an uncharacteristic walk.

"I regret the walk," he said after the game.

And I appreciate the desire for perfection.

The Phillies took two out of three games from the Nats and now they play a three game series against Florida, where they will have two more aces going.

Yep, this is exactly how I imagined it.

Halladay with a gutsy performance

Roy Halladay lumbered through the last inning, but there was no way he was coming out of the game.

Not even a mound visit by Charlie Manual was going to prevent Halladay from throwing another complete game.

With the tying run at second base, Halladay struck out Matt Stairs and Ivan Rodriguez to end the game - a 124 pitch, nine strikeout 3-2 win.

Halladay took a shut out into the ninth. After a double and single to start the inning, Halladay struck out Adam LaRoche. Two hits followed to put the tying run on second before Halladay closed the door.

Phillies closer Jose Contreras was ready to go, but Manuel decided to leave his ace in after talking it over with Halladay.

It was a gutsy performance. He was tired. But Halladay is a competitor.

And this my friends, is why he is our ace.

As usual, Blanton stinks

Good thing we only have to put up with this once every five days.

Not that the other four Phillies starting pitchers are perfect, but you can almost guarantee that you have to score at least 5-6 runs to win a game when Joe Blanton pitches.

Right on cue, Blanton allowed five earned runs in six innings on Monday in a 7-4 loss to the Nationals.

Even worse, Jayson Werth and his $126 million had two hits, including a solo home run.

I have to admit, I did get a good laugh from hearing more boo's than cheers when Werth came up in the first inning and then when he caught a fly ball in the second.

As usual, Philly fans infiltrate the Nationals home stadium.  Hope Werth has a lot of fun over the next seven years playing in front of no one instead of a packed house every night.

The Phillies had a great chance to mount a comeback in the seventh inning.  However, both John Mayberry Jr. and Shane Victorino struck out with the bases loaded to end the threat.

Washington entered the game with the worst batting average in the National League at .217.  Nothing a little Joe Blanton won't solve.

Missing three key players, the Nats still pounded Big Joe for seven hits.

Thankfully we go back to our regularly scheduled aces tomorrow.

Hamels shows why he is an ace

It was ace number four's turn to pitch a gem.

Cole Hamels, who struggled in his first outing, threw seven shut out innings in a 3-0 Phillies win over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday.

Ryan Madson pitched a solid eighth inning and Jose Contreras came on to get his second save.

This series was a big as an early season series can be.

Because of multiple injuries to the Phillies, the Braves had become a trendy pick to win the NL East.


After losing the first game of the series, the Phillies won the next two.

The Phils are now 7-2 while the Braves fell to 4-6.

Hamels was masterful, striking out eight and allowing only four hits.

The Phillies head to Washington starting a three game series that begins Tuesday.

Joe Blanton will start the first game and then the Phillies will get back to their aces pitching. Roy Halladay will pitch game two and Cliff Lee will pitch game three.

Maybe Jayson Werth and Lee can continue their conversation...

Flyers clinch division, stumble into playoffs

It would not have been a big surprise to see the Flyers blow another game Saturday.

This one would have had a bigger impact though.

The Flyers needed a win against the lowly New York Islanders Saturday to clinch the Atlantic Division. 

After blowing leads of 2-0 and 3-2, the Flyers held on for a 7-4 win and their first division title since 2003-04.

It did not come easy though.

The Flyers went from an 88 percent chance of winning the Eastern Conference on March 30th to blowing it and giving the conference title to the Washington Capitals.

It took them over a week in which the magic number was three points, to clinch the division over the Penguins.

The Flyers have stumbled mightily heading into the playoffs, losing 13 of their last 20 games.

A first round match up with the Buffalo Sabres will not be an easy one. 

The Sabres have a proven starter in Ryan Miller.  The Flyers will start Sergei Bobrovsky, who was pulled from Saturday's game.

If they continue to lack a sense of urgency and sleep walk through games like they have for the past month, it is going to be a long summer for the Flyers.

I never will understand how every season the Flyers go through stretches where they are not aggressive and have no sense of urgency.

Whatever it is, they are not playing well right now and are a prime candidate for an early exit from the playoffs.

The Flyers have the talent and depth - let's just hope they wake up.

Chooch Ruiz sets tone for incredible bench

Carlos Ruiz had a career high five RBI in a 10-2 win over the Braves today.

Not bad for only playing three innings.

Ruiz came off the bench in the seventh inning and connected a grand slam.

The Phillies bench has been unbelievable this season.

Consider this for a minute - the Phillies have 10 pinch hits in eight games. It took them until June 6th to get 10 pinch hits last season.  That's almost two months less.

The Phillies are 10-for-16 (.625) off the bench.

That's incredible.

The Phils were terrible last season, hitting .188 (45 for 240), the worst in the National League.

Depth is a great thing to have, and the Phillies have it.

They have power (John Mayberry Jr), versatility (Michael Martinez), speed (Pete Orr), a quality backup catcher (Brian Schneider), and one of the better pinch hitters in the game (Ross Gload).

Oh yeah, that does not include Wilson Valdez, who is starting for the injured Chase Utley, and is hitting .375.

But the big story today was Ruiz, normally a starter.  His grand slam was his first ever grand slam and first ever pinch-hit home run.

That leaves me with just one thing to say - Choooooooooch!

Not a good night in Philly

The night could not have been much worse for the Phillies and Flyers.

With fate still in their own hands, the Flyers slept through yet another game, losing to the lowly Ottawa Senators.

The Flyers now trail the surging Washington Capitals by two points with two games remaining.  With another Penguins win, the Flyers division lead was trimmed to one point.

Fall behind Pittsburgh and the Flyers would drop to fourth in the conference and they would play the Tampa Bay Lighting in the first round of the playoffs.

That is not a good proposition.

Luckily for the Phillies, they still control their own fate with 157 games still remaining.

But, they did not fare any better than the Flyers, getting thumped by the New York Mets, 7-1.

Cole Hamels looked terrible.

He could not even get Mets pitcher Chris Young out, who had two hits himself in a six run third inning.

Yeah, he was not so much an ace tonight.

I'm not concerned about the Phillies.  It was one game, and there is a long way to go.

I am concerned about the Flyers.  They have lost four straight and have been losing to teams they should be beating.

This is not a good time to get cold, and the Flyers have been as cold as Hamels' arm when he ices it after a game.