Thursday, May 29, 2008

Break up the Phillies

It took seven months, but the Phillies have exacted their revenge.

Led by all-everything Chase Utley, the Phils completed a three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies last night. Utley hit a three-run homer into the upper deck as the Phils offensive explosion continued.

You might remember the Rockies showed the Phils the exit from the playoffs last October in an equally abrupt three straight games. No, three regular season games don’t quite carry the same clout, but we’ll take it.

Now things get interesting. The win moved the Phils to within a half-game of the Florida Marlins. Guess who comes to town tomorrow night?

The Phillies and Marlins will meet at Citizens Bank Park for a three-game set with first place in the National League East on the line.

In the meantime, the Phils continue to put up some eye-popping offensive numbers. Six more runs last night, including a five-run outburst in the fifth that put the game away. They were aided by Rockies starter Greg Reynolds. He walked the two batters in front of Utley. Big mistake. Utley used that gorgeous, compact swing to crush a pitch into the first couple rows in the upper level in rightfield.

Reynolds wasn’t done. He then walked Ryan Howard. Up came Geoff Jenkins, who launched a moon shot that threatened to never come down before landing softly in the bleachers in right.

It says here the Phils are about to put the NL East in the rear-view mirror. They throttle the Marlins this weekend, take over first place, then slowly but surely build something this town has not seen in a long time – space between them and the rest of the NL East pack.

Hell, they even got a win from Adam Eaton last night. Everything is going their way. Why stop now?

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