Phirst Place Phils!!!

After the Phillies had put 16-17 players on the disable list they finally say goodbye wild card and hello to first place in the NL East! What a night it was in Philadelphia as the Phils are finally back to where they belong. The Phillies played the Marlins in a game, well that wasn't all that great but the Phillies got the job done. After trailing 3-1 in the 4th inning Raul Ibanez hit a solo home run (13) to make it a 3-2 Marlins lead. Later in the 5th Victorino hit his (17) home run to tie the ball game at 3. Two batters later the big man Ryan Howard hit a solo shot (27) to but the Phillies up 4-3, then Ibanez would drive in an RBI single to put the Phils up 5-3. We go to the top of 8th inning and this is where this game really gets out of hand. The Phillies are up 7-4 at this point and up comes Mike Stanton who has been on fire in this series hits a solo shot to now make it a 7-5 Phils lead. Then Emilio Bonifacio gets a singles and a runner would score on a throwing error by right fielder Jayson Werth, Bonifacio would move up to second and the score is now 7-6. Then the Phils make a picking change and bring in J.C. Romero, he would then balk and move the runner from second to third. After one batter Romero's night would be done and then they would bring in Ryan Madson. Madson would then throw a wild pitch and Bonifacio would come in to score and tie the ball game at 7-7. So what started with a 3 run lead is now a tied game. In the bottom half of the 8th Victorino would get a bloop single and then steal second to set up a RBI single for Placido Planco to take a 8-7 lead. Heading into the 9th inning the score board watching was a big deal because the Brave had just lost to the Pirates 5-0 which meant just 3 more outs and the Phillies would be back in first in the National League East for the first time since May 20th. Madson would come back in to pitch the 9th inning and he would closed the door and yes for the first time the Phillies were back on top of the NL East and won the ball game 8-7!

So on Tuesday night the Phillies finally got back what was there's since 2007, the National League East Division. Now a lot of sports writers and broadcaster have counted this team out and one of our faithful former Phillies players John Kruk even said about 3 weeks ago on baseball tonight "that the Phillies are done and the Braves will win the division". I'm not sure what he's talking about. For the past 3 year the Phillies have been the kings of east and why would you ever doubt this team is beyond me? Yes the Phillies at one point did look dead in the water and had to overcome a lot of injures, but hey they did and this team knows how to play September baseball. The Phillies still have 22 games left and out of those 22 games they will have to see the Braves twice for 6 games. The last 3 games are at Atlanta and that could be an important series, but if the Phillies could maybe beat up the Braves a little bit when they come to Philadelphia for a 3 game series maybe it will help the Phils have some breathing room. The Phillies only have a half game lead over the Braves and they are the first NL team to reach 80 wins on the season. Who would have thought that this team would have reach 80 wins before the Padres, Red, and Braves? With all these injures this team has had it is almost hard to believe they have 80 wins and are now the best team in the National League. It feels good to be back in Phirst at last!

The end of this four game series will continue tonight as the Phillies send out their left hander Cole Hamels to try to pick up his 10th win of the year with an ERA of 3.18 and 183 strikeouts. On the other side the Marlins will send out their lefty Andrew Miller 1-0, ERA of 3.60. Phillies - Marlins tonight at 7:05 p.m.