Phillies season 9

[MDS]

Phillies would need to sweep the Braves in Atlanta to have a shot at the division. Despite playing the Marlins 6 times, they get 6 with the Mets/Rockies. Probably 5-1 or 4-2 right there. Marlins I would guess 3-3. Not counting the Phillies series (and assuming we win tommorrow), thats 89 wins. Even taking 2/3 in Atlanta won't be enough unless they totally collapse. It's a long shot, but aside from Smoltz, we get their zesty pitchers down in Atlanta.

[Geowhizzer]

Let's not look ahead:  there's still a game vs. the Braves to play tonight.

[Rome]

If the Phillies win out and the Braves lose six games, the Phillies win the division.

Like I said, it could happen.  It won't but it would be really cool if it did.

[mikey418]

Actually, if the Phils win again tonight, they'll be 4 games behind the Braves.  If they then go down to Atl and sweep the Braves, that's down to 1 game...

[PhillyGirl]

I just hope they get the game in....its supposed to be nasty weather here today.

[PhillyGirl]

Bill Conlin | A bounce in their step
PHILLIES COULD HAVE QUIT, BUT THEY DIDN'T


I WAS A rookie beat writer in 1966 and was slow to learn the many ways to light manager Gene Mauch's short fuse.

I discovered one night in late September of that disappointing Phillies season the Little General didn't particularly care for the word "quit.'' Gene liked it even less if "quit'' was a modifier placed next to the team managed by him.

The Phillies were in fourth place on Sept. 19. They trailed the Dodgers by eight games in the one-division, 10-team National League of that era. Larry Jackson had shut out Claude Osteen in the first game of the four-game series in Dodger Stadium, so a Jim Bunning victory over Don Drysdale in Game 2 would trim the lead to seven games. Mauch's ace pitched badly and lost, 6-1. In the third game of the series, they sleepwalked to an 11-1 loss to the great Sandy Koufax. It was the 25th victory of

Koufax's final season.

The loss left the Phillies 10 back - game, set, match and season for a team that was on the cover of the Sports Illustrated baseball issue. After the lame

effort I asked Mauch in a sepulchral clubhouse if his team had quit.

I got the full, 1-minute delay Mauch reserved for his most

considered pronouncements. The words finally came out like

a slow-motion splatter of caustic lye.

"This team doesn't know the meaning of the word quit,'' No. 4 hissed. "I don't know how to say it and you don't know how to write it.''

This year's Phillies could have quit after beginning the destiny segment of the schedule by

getting swept at home by the

Astros. They lost the wild-card lead and more than that. Whatever fan credibility they had built during a hanging-in-there August was swept away by a fresh wave of fan derision.

Comrade Rich Hofmann, who believes in this team a lot more than I do, pointed out on Comcast SportsNet's "Daily News Live'' Tuesday how each time the club seemed to have shot off a hand, a foot or bit off a tongue, it shook itself, picked up the

machete and lurched back into the wild-card race like some kind of baseball Jason.

Paul Owens used to call this trait "Bounceability.''

In its simplest definition, bounceability is the knack of walking into a steaming mound of horse manure and emerging from the other side aboard Smarty Jones.

It is the ability the legendary Phils general manager had of

being helped to his hotel room shortly before sunrise in a knee-walking state and showing up in the hotel lobby 2 hours later, ready for another 18-hour day. He would be fresh-shaved and scrubbed, dressed to the nines, eyes clear, quick of smile and nimble of step.

Many hours later, when his

predawn accomplices would start showing up, heads-splitting, red-eyed, foul-breathed and amnesic, somebody would blurt: "Pope, how the hell do you do it on 2 hours sleep?''

"Bounceability,'' he would say. "I've always had a great deal of bounceability.''

So here they are, a game away from a four-game sweep of a Braves team that hardly looks like some impregnable baseball fortress. Since the most recent stumble that left them ready for wild-card Skid Row, the Phillies are astride a four-game winning streak and have won five of six from the Marlins and Braves.

And a grieving Roger Clemens won one for his mom last night, dragging the Marlins back into a tie for the WC lead with the Phillies. Which means that even with a loss tonight, the Phillies can leave Miami on Sunday night leading the Miss Lower Slobbovia Division.

I was going to use this paragraph to hammer Cholly Manuel for sitting Ryan Howard against a lefthander named Horacio Ramirez, who is not Randy Johnson. With all the Howard talk the ESPN national TV crew of Chris Berman and Jeff Brantley did with the first baseman riding the pines, imagine how much exposure the Phils' rookie of the year candidate would have had if Manuel had run him out there. Imagine...

With the bases loaded in the third inning, Howard's caddie, Ramon Martinez, dug in against the scuffling Ramirez.

While the extra man who came from Detroit with Ugueth Urbina in the Placido Polanco deal ran out his grand slam homer, Manuel was observed walking resolutely into a steaming mound of horse manure.

Cholly emerged on the other side riding Afleet Alex. The skipper and Ramon rode into the sunset together. Giant flashes of lightning shorted out the light towers.

Bounceability, Paul Owens called it...

Maybe this team doesn't know the meaning of the word "quit'' either.

Conln on the Phils

[Rome]

Conlin is disgusting when he's being positive.

[Sgt PSN]

Maybe this team doesn't know the meaning of the word "quit'' either.

I don't think this team knows the meaning of the word "quit" but I'm not sold on whether or not they know the meaning of the word "WIN" either.  There's a difference between quitting and losing.  The Phils have always been losers. 

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

I'm still not convinced or back on the bandwagon.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Jorge Sosa pitches tonight for them. He's another Mazzone Miracle. He's 11-3 with a 2.55ERA.

But Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins will have big games and the broom comes out.

[rjs246]

Isn't it funny how that couldn't hold the Wild Card lead, but now that they are trailing they play at their usual "we'll just keep pace" level. They suck.

[Rome]

Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

You'll regret jumping back on the bandwagon after they lose tonight, if they get the game in.

[rjs246]

Good thing the Phillies kept David Bell and traded Polanco instead of moving him to third. Good decision making there.

[MDS]

We got Urbina, by the way.