Make sure you packed clean underwear

Scott Lauber, the beatific bulldog scribe from the Wilmington News-Journal announced a few days ago that he was bringing an extra set of clothes in case his are doused in a post-game celebration. This made a lot of sense. Who wants to go back upstairs from the clubhouse dripping wet from champagne spray? Then again, I’ve never witnessed one of those post-game champagne celebrations. Oh, I’ve seen them on TV and have a pretty good idea about occurs, but I do write about the Phillies. Champagne does not flow freely in these parts.

Nevertheless, I have a suitcase full of clothes in my car. The Phillies are getting closer to clinching this thing even after Jamie Moyer gave up an unearned run with two outs in the fourth on Austin Kearns’ single.

Regardless, the Phillies are 15 outs away because back at Shea, the Marlins still lead by six runs as they approach the midway point.

These two games could end at the same time.

The Phillies went down in the bottom half of the fourth against new Nats’ pitcher, Jonathan Albaladejo. I’m not sure, but I would bet that Jonathan Albaladejo is the longest name I have ever typed. It's 18 letters by my count. Anyway, Jonathan Albaladejo plunked Carlos Ruiz with two outs, which was the second time that the Phils’ catcher has been drilled this series. On Friday night he was smacked on the hand by a pitch from Tim Redding and it looked like it really hurt. My guess is that it bothers Ruiz when he throws.

Still 3-1 heading to the halfway point.

Adding on and whiting out

I just wrote the results of the last inning in the wrong page of my scorebook. I hate when that happens. Now my Bob Carpenter Scorebook is going to look messy like a chicken wrote all in it and I can’t have that.

Bob Carpenter, by the way, is the play-by-play announcer for the Nationals’ TV broadcasts. His scorebook is excellent, but now my copy has Presto! whiteout all over it.

I’m not sure if Carpenter’s book is as good as how Jamie Moyer has been pitching so far. He took down the Nats in order again in the third, this time on 13 pitches. He also got another strikeout on one of those off-speed pitches on the outer edge of the plate.

It didn’t go as well for Jason Bergmann against the Phillies in the bottom of the third. Carlos Ruiz doubled to open the inning, then, with one out, Bergmann walked Jimmy Rollins and plunked Shane Victorino. However, he nearly wiggled out of some bases-loaded trouble when Chase Ultey harmlessly popped up to short and had two strikes on Ryan Howard with two outs.

But Howard’s two-run single made it 3-0, which made that six-run deficit at Shea look like it was double-digits.

Moyer humming along

Jamie Moyer remained sharp in the second inning to retire the Nats in order. The last two outs of the inning were strikeouts on pitches where Moyer got Wily Mo Pena and Jesus Flores to chase some off-speed stuff (does Moyer throw anything else?) way off the outside edge of the plate.

Moyer needed 16 more pitches to get through the second. So far he’s thrown 29 pitches –19 of them strikes.

At the plate, the Phillies went down just as harmlessly as the Nats. Jason Bergmann was even more efficient than Moyer, throwing just eight pitches in the frame.

Back at Shea it’s still 7-1 with one out and Jose Reyes at the plate. They just showed a shot of the Mets’ new ballpark on TV… if the Mets go down today, they might need a new one in time for next year. Shea might not make it through the day.

Rollins steals a run

Veteran lefty Jamie Moyer was sharp in the first, throwing just 13 pitches to retire the side despite a double by Ronnie Belliard the barely landed inside the right-field foul line. Meanwhile, the “M-V-P!” chants for Jimmy Rollins started as soon as the third out was recorded in the first. It seems to me that the fans don’t have to chant that to convince anyone anymore. The BBWAA has to have their ballots in by the end of the day and my informal polling shows that Rollins will likely win the MVP Award.

Charlie Manuel should be first or second in the manager of the year balloting with Arizona’s Bob Melvin, while Jake Peavy has the Cy Young Award sewn up.

The rookie of the year award seems to be a tossup between Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun and Colorado’s Troy Tulowitzki. Kyle Kendrick should garner some votes, too.

Back to the action… Rollins singled to open the frame and then swiped second before Shane Victorino grounded back to the pitcher. On a 1-2 pitch to Chase Utley, Rollins stole third base for his 41st steal of the season.

I wonder if Rollins called up his buddy Dontrelle Willis last night? I was going to ask him, but he seemed like he didn’t want his pre-game focus broken.

Anyway, the stolen base worked out pretty well because Rollins scored on Utley’s lined sacrifice fly to right to make it 1-0. Back at Shea, Carlos Delgado grimaced in pain after getting hit by a pitch from Willis. It appears as if the Mets’ slugger is out of the game.

The Mets are in big, big trouble.

Quick hook

Before the last note of the anthem had been sung, Tom Glavine was out of the game at Shea. Dontrelle Willis had circled the bases before even throwing a pitch. It's a mess up there. As Felipe Lopez stepped into the box for the first pitch of the game the crowd roared...

7-0 Marlins. Still only two outs in the first.

Mets in a hole before the anthem has been sung

The Phillies were extremely loose in the clubhouse before today's game. In fact, I talked to Geoff Geary at length about his home and neighborhood in the San Diego suburbs. The mood in the clubhouse just got much more loose, I'm sure, when Tom Glavine and the Mets fell into a quick, 4-0 hole with just one out in the first. When they posted the score here the crowd exploded with cheers, which was odd because they were handing out awards to some Phillies' employees in an on-field ceremony.

The poor dudes thought the cheers were for them.

Instead, everyone was fired up for the Mets' potential demise.

SNY's Matt Yallof is heading to Philadelphia for tomorrow's game... if it occurs. Matt is one of the finest dudes ever to work in the media business -- at least that I've been able to find. He's not like most TV guys (that's a high compliment) in that he thinks stories through like a writer. When he produces something for TV, he wants to tell a story, which is something that is lacking in a lot of TV reporting these days.

There are others like Matt, but not very many.

Pre-game

Normally, the news about Haile Gebrselassie obliterating the world record in the marathon would send me into a dizzy and force me to blather on and on and on about the greatness of the beautiful Ethiopian runner and how marathoning is the one true sport. Truth be told, I could talk about running all day long. Frankly, running is all I want to do with my time away from my wife and kids.

But today is different. It's Game 162 and everything is at stake. As Aaron Rowand artfully summed it up: "If we win we get to keep playing." It's just that simple.

So Geb's 2:04:26 in Berlin takes a back seat. Instead, I spent the morning chatting with other writers in attempt to gauge their opinion of how today's events will unfold. Interestingly, the predictions are all as different as the personalities. Some say everyone will lose. Another (like me) thinks that every team in the hunt will win. Still others believe the Mets will win and the Phillies will lose to set up the showdown here at the Bank tomorrow night.

None of the sportswriters have ever heard of Haile Gebrselassie.

Buckle up

We're going live today as best we can... heading down to the clubhouse and then will get busy (busier!).

Number 162

To me, there has always been way too much aggrandizing about Opening Day in baseball. Opening is just the first of 162 and rarely has any true impact on the season. Better yet, unless it’s totally extraordinary, Opening Day is never memorable. There is no significant action. But the last game of the season – that’s when the memories are made. Game 162 is the time for heroes and for the real pros to step into the spotlight. Even when teams are just playing out the string, the last game of the year is like running that final 385 yards of the marathon.

Anyway can do the first 26 miles, but it’s that last stretch where legacies are defined.

As a kid I also romanticized about the last game of the year and suffered the wide-eyed, Field of Dreams-types during Opening Day. I was more interested in the guts of the action and not the first few easy strides of the race, which meant I spent all summer figuring out what it was going to take for a team to make the last day the most important one.

Sometimes I got lucky, too. I can recall being at the Vet for Game 162 in 1991 when David Cone of the Mets struck out 19 against a Phillies club that featured Doug Lindsey and Braulio Castillo. In fact, Cone had a shot to tie the all-time record for strikeouts in a game after he whiffed the first two hitters to start the ninth inning. But Wes Chamberlain doubled and Dale Murphy – a player who lead the National League in strikeouts three times and ranks 13th on the all-time whiffs list – grounded out to end the season.

The Vet seemed empty that day with most of the crowd holding Walkmen to listen to the Eagles’ early-season loss at Tampa Bay with Brad Goebel at quarterback, but when Cone had a chance to tie the record it was the loudest the fans were all day.

I also was at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore on the final day of the 1982 regular season where the Orioles nearly pulled off a stunning comeback to win the AL East. Trailing the Milwaukee Brewers by three games heading into the final, four-game series, the Orioles won the opener with Dennis and Tippy Martinez on the mound, and swept a Saturday doubleheader by a combined score of 18-4 to make the last game of the year a do-or-die situation.

Any good Milwaukeean can tell you what happened in that Sunday finale.

Ben Oglivie made a sliding catch on the gravel warning track in left, Robin Yount pounded two homers off Jim Palmer by the third inning, and Don Sutton mesmerized the Orioles for eight innings in Earl Weaver’s last game as the Brewers went on from there to an improbable playoff run.

And I was there.

I’ll be there on Sunday when the Phillies attempt to pull off what the Orioles could not in 1982. Trailing the juggernaut New York Mets by seven games just two weeks ago, the Phillies go into Game 162 all tied and with a chance to make it to the playoffs for the first time since 1993. There is no doubt that the day will be filled with craziness of the type that we will discuss for years to come.

This time, though, I won’t be sitting near folks more interested in listening to out-of-town football scores or packed in tight in the left-field bleachers at long since torn down baseball parks. This time I’ll get to see the protective plastic sheeting that had been secured into place late last night when the Phillies took over first place (for less than 24 hours) lowered to stop champagne spray. Or maybe I’ll see ballplayers cry over the missed opportunities of a season stopped too short.

But then again, maybe I’ll see a team prepare for Game 163 on Monday to settle the season in winner-take-all fashion.

Either way, this is a lot more exciting than any Opening Day could ever be.

The Reckoning

TIMBER!

OK, so which is it that is most impressive? Is it the Phillies surge in which they have won 12 of their last 15 games in which they overcame a 7-game deficit on Sept. 12 and now hold a 1-game advantage with two games to go? Or is it the Mets’ stunning collapse/choke job/freefall that has conjured up remembrances of the 1964 Phillies? It should, because obliterating a 7-game lead with 17 games to play is a much bigger collapse than the one by the ’64 Phillies.

Sure, in ’64 the Phillies lead the National League by 6½ games with 12 to go to miss out on the World Series. But in those days, of course, there were no divisional playoff berths and no wild card. There was just the regular season and then straight to the World Series.

The ’64 Phillies had nothing to fall back on to give them a chance to regroup in the playoffs.

The Mets’ collapse has come in an age where if they did not win the division, they could focus their attention on the wild-card berth. But then again, who worries about the wild card when a team is leading the division by 7 games with 17 to go and has been in first place for 135 straight days?

Maybe the Mets should have.

Needless to say the big “Freak Out” has begun in New York. A story in the Times about the Mets’ team poet had this great quote:

“As a fan, my world is caving in because the Mets are collapsing.”

Maybe we should compose a few couplets about the Mets’ collapse, too. If anyone has anything good, send them in and we’ll try to cobble together a poem called, “An Ode to the Mets’ Collapse.”

What rhymes with “choke?”

*** If the season were to end today (it will end tomorrow instead), the Phillies would host the San Diego Padres in the first round of the NLDS and the Cubs and Diamondbacks are set in the other side.

It’s also set up for Cole Hamels to pitch in Game 1 against his hometown team…

How is that for a coincidence?

More from the ballpark this afternoon...

Almost there...

Phillies vs. Mets on Monday?

Cole Hamels is in the bullpen warming up, the fans are filtering into the sold-out ballpark and the oppressive humid has finally broken and given way to a decidedly autumnal tinge.

It feels like playoff baseball time[1].

Meanwhile, the word filtered down from New York City that despite all of the bluster to the contrary, the Mets have resigned themselves to participating in a playoff game in Philadelphia on Monday. If such an event were to occur, people will need tickets for the game. So when and if a playoff game is scheduled for Monday and/or Tuesday, the Phillies announced they will sell tickets.

Here’s the Phillies’ announcement:

In order to prepare and plan, the Phillies are announcing that tickets will go on public sale once the tie-breaking game has been deemed necessary.

Full season ticket holders (81 games) have been mailed their locations. Season ticket holders and E-Mail Club members will be offered the opportunity to purchase tie-breaker tickets in advance of the public sale.

Tickets may be purchased on Sunday (once a game has been deemed necessary) via the following outlets:

ONLINE: www.phillies.com.

When ordering via the internet, the Phillies suggest choosing the convenient “print at home” option. Access to the internet is available 24 hours a day.

PHONE CENTER: (215) 463-1000. Again, once the game has been deemed necessary, the Phone Center will be open Sunday until 10:00 p.m. . . . Phone lines will open again at 8:00 a.m. on Monday.

The Phillies suggest fans choose the “print at home” option or pick up their will call tickets well in advance of the game, either Sunday night or early Monday morning.

IN PERSON: Two Citizens Bank Park locations: (1) First Base Gate ticket windows (on Pattison Avenue) and (2) West ticket windows (on Citizens Bank Way, adjacent to the Majestic Clubhouse Store). Hours: Sunday until 10:00 p.m. The ticket windows will reopen at 8:00 a.m. on Monday.

***

Speaking of the New York Mets, there was a helluva quote in the Oct. 1, 2007 edition of the New York Observer from a story written by John Koblin. In the story headlined, “Gutsy Mr. Metsie,” all about how Mets’ skipper Willie Randolph is dealing with his team’s “September Swoon,” veteran lefty pitcher Tom Glavine is on the record saying:

“Sometimes when you’re a team as talented as we are—I don’t know if I’d use the word ‘bored,’ but I guess you can get complacent sometimes. You don’t pay attention to details every now and then because you do have a ton of talent and think you can on most days do everything you wanna do.”

So the Mets are collapsing because they are so good? They haven’t been paying attention to details?

I wonder if their curiosity has been piqued now?

---

[1] Not that most of us in the Phillies’ writing press corps actually knows what “playoff baseball” feels like. A lot of us have floated out into unchartered waters.

[2] a.k.a: a choke job of epic proportions

Are they trying to lose on purpose? Part deux

I heard David Wright, the third baseman, on the radio this morning talking about how his Mets’ teammates haven’t “made off-season plans yet.” At least I think it was the radio – at this point it’s really hard to decipher the voices in my head from the ones coming out of mechanical devices. I wish I was being funny, but I’m not… I feel like Apu Nahasapeemapetilon at the end of a 36-hour shift at the Kwik-E-Mart. Remember that? He thought he was a hummingbird.

Anyway, I don’t think Wright was trying to be funny about the plans for the off-season quote, either. However, he might feel like he and the Mets are caught in a swarm of hummingbirds as those little bleepers dive in and out with the hearts and wings racing a hundred-miles per second as they try to poke his eyes out.

In this scenario the Phillies are the hummingbirds. They are ravenous and beatific all at the same time. They are also tied for first place in the NL East with just three games to go in the season because the Mets just can’t win a game when it matters.

I just can’t get over the fact that if the Mets had been able to beat the lowly Washington Nationals at home in just one of the three games this week, this would all be over. The Mets would be making plans for where to stay on the road in the NLDS instead of hearing manager Willie Randolph tear into them like a wolverine on greenies in a post-game tirade following the team’s loss to the Cardinals last night. Heading into tonight’s action, the Mets have won just three of their last 13 games and they have lost seven games in a row at cranky old Shea Stadium.

It was also during those 13 games that the Mets’ lead over the Phillies shrank from seven games to nothing. Imagine that… seven to zero in two weeks! It's like those ads for those crazy diet pills in which they claim a person can lose 25 pounds in four hours. But, if one day you’re hanging out with some friends and the topic of rock-solid, sure-footing in the NL East standings is broached, you can say, “Yeah, well, I once saw the Mets blow a seven-game lead with just 16 games to go.

“It was ridiculous. It was like they were waiting around to lose[1].”

Stunning. It's all so stunning.

Anyway, I also heard an announcer proclaim on the radio this morning[2] like and antebellum preacher that, “This isn’t a choke… This is a COLLAPSE!”

Unlike Wright, the announcer was trying to be funny. At least I think he was trying to be funny. But he seemed like one of those types of people that believed everything he said. He measured every word so that it would be significant, though you could hear it in his voice – he was worried. The hummingbirds were diving in like little, tiny P-51 Mustang fighter planes and a rolled up newspaper used to swat the pests away was hardly a defense.

So this is what it has come down to for the Phillies and Mets. The three games this weekend determine which team will play on in the post-season and which team will have to scramble to cobble together some off-season plans. Interestingly, too, is that that the Mets and Phillies are matched up against the two worst teams in their division. The Phillies host the Nationals this weekend, who are fresh off a three-game sweep over the Mets at Shea and are feeling pretty groovy because they did not lose 100 games this season. Everyone thought the Nats (72-87) would drop 110; instead they have a chance to not lose 90.

Meanwhile, the Mets entertain the Florida Marlins, which, coincidentally enough, is the only team they have managed to beat in the last two weeks. Like the Nats, the Marlins won’t lose 100 either. But unlike the Nats, this feat isn’t going to go down as any type of success. Heading into the season, the Marlins thought they had what it took to challenge the Mets, Phillies and Braves atop the division standings, but things just kinda didn’t work out.

Who will things work out for this weekend? Or, will things work out so well (or badly) for both teams that they will have to come back a day after the season ends to sort it all out?

***

Talked to Aaron Rowand, the center fielder, after last night’s game and offered a query whether this Phillies’ club had any similarities with the World Champion 2005 Chicago White Sox. Rowand, of course, was an integral player on that team, which was known for having fun and being colorful in the press. It also seems as if that White Sox team was a lot like a college fraternity, but not like the one that held toga parties or socials with the sororities. No, this frat was more like the one that held illegal off-campus keggers, built bonfires that weren’t easy to extinguish, and had a member who knew how to make home-made M-80s if he could ever locate the 50 milligrams of flash powder.

So when asked if this tight-knit Phillies bunch was like the 2005 champs, Rowand didn’t hesitate.

“No doubt,” he said emphatically.

“This is the second team I’ve been on where the group comes together. We all have the same goal and it’s special,” he said. “Whether we win or not it’s a special season.”

But all things being equal, he’d rather win.

---

[1] This is part of quote from Mets’ catcher Paul Lo Duca, who told reporters after Wednesday night’s loss that, “Seems to me like we’re all waiting to lose.” I’m using it to be clever. I think it worked, but I haven’t gone back to re-read any of this yet. Perhaps I’ll just finish writing this and go off to take a nap without the re-read? Hey, it was funny once – why ruin a moment for myself?

[2] At least I think it was this morning… does the post-1 a.m. drive back to Lancaster count as this morning? Technically, yes, it was this morning. But I always played by the rule that the day wasn’t over until I had gone to bed. Is this a common train of thought?

Sorting it all out

OK. Go find a quiet room, sit in a comfortable chair and clear your head from any and all distractions. I’m going to attempt to explain how the playoff tiebreakers will work if the Phillies don’t surge past the Mets to win the NL East.

I’m not kidding – you have to concentrate on this.

Ready? Here we go:

We all know how a tiebreaker would work if two teams are deadlocked at the end of the season, but what happens if the season ends and three or four teams are tied for first place in the wild-card race.

Truth be told, I didn’t know.

But I found out.

But first, here’s the basic stuff: if the Mets and Phillies end the regular season tied atop the NL East, there would be a one-game playoff Monday here at the Bank to determine the division champion.

Likewise, if the Phillies finish the season tied with either the Rockies or Padres for the wild card, the Phillies would play the one-game playoff on the road as determined by a coin toss earlier this month.

But suppose the Phillies finish the season tied with two of the three teams in the hunt in the NL West (Padres, D’backs, Rockies). In that case, there would be an “A,B,C” tiebreaker, which goes like this:

The team with the best record against the other two teams gets to decide whether it wants to be Team A, B or C. The team with the second-best record gets to chose one of the two remaining spots and then, Team A would host Team B on Monday, and the winner of that game would host Team C on Tuesday.

The winner of Tuesday’s game wins the wild card.

So here’s how it stands now:

The Phillies are 7-7 against the Padres and Rockies; the Padres were 11-14 against the Phillies and Rockies; while the Rockies were 14-11 against the other two clubs. This means the Rockies would get to chose which letter they wanted to be and the Phillies would get second pick.

Logically, it seems, the Rockies would not want to play two games in order to go to the playoffs, so unless they get a brain cramp like that coach in overtime football game on Thanksgiving a few years back who won the coin toss and elected to kickoff, the Rockies will elect to be Team C.

With second choice, the Phillies would take the Team A slot and would host the Padres on Monday and if they survived that game, they would face the Rockies at the Bank on Tuesday to determine the wild-card winner.

The monkey wrench is if the Padres or Rockies overtake the Diamondbacks for first place in the NL West to send them back into the wild-card mix. But either way, as long as the Phillies continue to win games, they will be playing baseball in October.

Got it?

But what if something really weird happens and Phillies, Mets, Rockies, Diamondbacks and Padres all finish with the same record.

• On Monday, the Mets and Phillies would play to determine the division champion. The loser falls into the wild-card mix and would play Wednesday against whichever other teams in the wild-card pile-up.

• The three N.L. West teams would play an A/B/C tie-breaker, with the winner emerging as the division champion.

• The two losers will join the Mets in another A/B/C tie-breaker, to be played Wednesday and Thursday, with the winner of that capturing the wild card.

If all else fails, the National League’s representatives in the post-season will be determined by a rock, paper, scissors round-robin.

Are they trying to lose on purpose?

“Seems to me we’re all waiting to lose.”- Mets catcher Paul Lo Duca

Yes, Paul we all noticed that, too. Actually, it doesn't look like the Mets aren't waiting to lose, it looks like they are trying to lose.

I could live to be 100-years old and I’ll never figure out how the first-place Mets – the team that most said had to go to the World Series or the season would be considered a failure – could not beat the Washington Nationals in one game at home this week. This is the same Washington Nationals’ club in which the manager is being considered for Manager of the Year honors because he didn’t lose100 games. You know, like that’s an accomplishment.

One win against the Nats and all of this hassle could have been over for the Mets. Just one stinkin’ game and the Phillies aren’t pounding on the door with a battering ram like a bunch of DEA agents. Two wins against the 72-87 Nationals, and the Mets could have had some champagne on ice for tonight’s game against Tony La Russa’s Cardinals.

“Seems to me like we’re all waiting to lose.”

So watching the end of the Mets-Nats game on the TV hung over my seat in the press box, I saw the Mets roll over and expose their perfectly round, pink bellies for everyone to thrash away at. Better yet, they were like a picture of the dead bug on the old cockroach-killing ads where they were flat on their backs, with legs dangling in the air and Xs where their eyes should have been.

I also saw a few players who would have preferred to have been anywhere else but Shea Stadium. Yeah, he’s a “gamer” and all of that stuff, but did anyone really think that Billy Wagner wanted to be in for the ninth inning of a game that the Mets were losing? Worn down by a long season and maybe even a little too much use, Wagner promptly hucked that low-90s fastball up there and gave up a pair of runs with his team trailing by one.

Is this the end for the Mets? Can Willie Randolph get his reeling team together to hold off the Phillies? Can the genius that is Tony La Russa do a favor for the Phillies by coming up with something just clever enough to deal the Mets yet another loss?

Maybe he'll have his pitcher hit eighth again... yeah, that always works. Maybe he'll run the fumble-ruski or State of Liberty play?

Oh sure, those are football plays alright, but La Russa will figure it out. *** Then again, the Phillies have to face a beyond-desperate Braves club tonight, who can’t lose any more games (and then hope for help) this season in order to cling to the flicker of a playoff chance. To keep hope alive the Braves will rally behind John Smoltz, one of the best big-game pitchers of his generation.

The Phillies will counter with 23-year old rookie Kyle Kendrick and 40,000 screaming fans.

*** Our good friends Mike and Michelle Wann welcomed their second son into the world this morning at 1:47 a.m.. Daniel Kingston Wann came in easily at a slick 7-pounds, 8 ounces and 19½ inches and all reports are that Michelle and big brother Christopher are doing great.

But Mike… that’s a different story.

A little background: Mike and Michelle delivered Christopher in the comforts of their home here in the School Lane Hills neighborhood of Lancaster, Pa. Rather than go to the hospital and be subjected to all of the stuff that goes on at those places, the kids had a midwife come in while Mike did his best to stay out of trouble. And since he was at home, he could putter around in the yard while Michelle was upstairs delivering the baby.

It’s how I imagine our pioneer forefathers did things.

But this time, well, perhaps I should just turn it over to Mike:

Interesting Point: Admittedly, it was in this space I planned to be clever and funny as I told our story, but sometimes, when a tale is so outrageous and unbelievable, a well crafted build-up actually takes away from the drama. So here it goes; Michelle and I birthed this little rascal at home, by ourselves, with no assistance (this is no joke). Let me be clear, that was not our intention. It went down like this:

1. We wanted to do a home-birth, like our first one 2. We called the midwife when Michelle started labor at 10:30 PM 3. The midwife planned to come when the contractions reached 1 minute in length 4. Michelle’s water ruptured at 1:15 AM (we were still waiting for the 1 minute contractions) 5. The baby exited Michelle at 1:47 AM 6. The midwife entered the house at 1:55 AM

So what did we learn? It’s true, the second birth is quicker than the first. Oh, yeah, and you never know what you can do until the occasion presents itself.

Yeah, how about that?!?!

I received a phone call from Mike this morning and he asked me what I had done so far today. I told him that I had brushed my teeth, eaten a banana and I was about to go out for a run before I got into my car for the drive to Philadelphia to go to work. All things being equal, that’s a pretty busy day for a guy like me.

“Yeah, well I birthed a baby,” he said.

Top that.

Lohse's outing could pay off

Kyle Lohse, the big deadline pick up by the Phillies’ GM Pat Gillick, delivered a pitching performance that could resonate deeper than just in the standings, after the 5-2 victory over the Braves. In turning in seven, efficient innings in which he gave up just two runs and only allowed one hit after the fourth inning, Lohse probably didn’t save the Phillies season, but he may have ruined things for the Mets. By beating the Braves, Lohse not only gave the ragged and weary bullpen a rare short and easy (relatively speaking) night, he also helped drag the always fickle pendulum of momentum over to the Phillies’ side of things in the sprint to the finish in the NL East.

You don’t think the New York Mets and their fans don’t know what Lohse and the Phillies did last night? Guess again. The midnight callers to the late-night shows on WFAN weren’t as half as desperate sounding as the body language emanating from the Mets’ players during the last few innings of the loss to the lowly Washington Nationals.

Worse yet, how do the Mets get sweep by the Nationals with everything hanging in the balance? Seriously, the Nationals?

But perhaps more interestingly, Lohse very well could have earned himself a Brink’s truck full of money after beating the Braves last night.

Really?

Despite a 9-12 record and 4.63 ERA split between his time with the Phillies and the Reds, the 28-year old right-hander might be a sought after commodity on the free-agent wire this winter. For one thing, there aren’t too many pitchers Lohse’s age with six years of big league experience under their belt to go with three playoff appearances. Then – again, despite the numbers – Lohse just always seems to win games. At least that has been the case for the Phillies.

In 11 starts since joining the Phillies in the trade with the Reds in late July, Lohse is 3-0 with a 4.76 ERA. Opponents have hit a lusty .313 off him and he’s registered 39 strikeouts in 58 2/3 innings. Nope, that’s nothing to write home about there. But in those 11 starts the Phillies are 9-2 and Lohse has taken the game to the seventh inning in seven of those starts.

In other words, you know exactly what you are going to get with Kyle Lohse.

“Looking back, getting Lohse is probably the best move we’ve made all season,” said Aaron Rowand, though his manager Charlie Manuel stated that the deal to pick up Greg Dobbs was a great move, too. “He has the stuff, the makeup and the intelligence to go and attack hitters. He’s been solid.”

But what do the Phillies think they can get from Lohse and his uber-agent Scott Boras this winter? After all, the Phillies did “rescue” Lohse from going through the motions and playing out the string for the lowly Reds this season, and put him right in the middle of a pennant race. Plus, admittedly Lohse enjoys his new teammates and the chemistry on the club.

However, if the Phillies want to talk to Lohse and Boras at the end of the season, they are more than welcome to extend an offer. If not, well, there are a lot of baseball teams looking for pitching.

“To be able to come here and jump in a playoff race with this group, it’s good to finish it off in this kind of atmosphere,” Lohse said after beating the Braves. “But I've kind of earned the right to go out there. I owe it to myself to see what's out there. This is a great situation, but we'll see how it works out. Every player, once he gets six years [of Major League service time] has earned the opportunity to see what's up.”

Undoubtedly, Lohse will get the chance real soon.

In the meantime, though, Lohse could be called on to make one more start for the Phillies this week. If that happens it would be in a playoff game for the right to go to the playoffs on Monday.

Victorino answers the call Though he hasn’t started a game since Sept. 20, and has been in the lineup just three times this month since his late August return from the DL with a calf injury, Shane Victorino came through last night.

Pinch hitting for Lohse in the bottom of the seventh of a two-run game, Victorino turned on an inside pitch from the Braves’ hurler Tim Hudson and rocketed one deep into the right-field seats.

“It's exciting to hit a home run and all, but the bigger thing is that we won,” Victorino said. "Whatever opportunity I get I'm going to do what I have to do to help this team win.”

Hitting homers and helping the club is the easy part. The difficult part has been getting onto the field. After injuring his calf while running out a ground ball in Chicago in late July, Victorino has been hitting the brakes more than a car driving down a steep hill. In mid-August the right fielder returned to the lineup, only to tweak his calf again and miss even more time. Since then Victorino’s calf injury has flared up from time to time in such a way that he didn’t need to go back on the disabled list, but it was just enough to relegate him to pinch-hitting duties.

Plus, with Jayson Werth swinging a hot bat through late August and September, Manuel has opted to go with the right-handed hitter in right field.

Needless to say it’s been rather tough for Victorino.

“It was just frustrating. I tried to come back too quick and I just wasn't ready,” he said. “I just wanted to go out and play, but the next time I know to take my time.”

However, when Manuel gives the call, Victorino says he won’t be stopped.

“I'm ready. It's his decision to make,” he said. “But when things are going good like they are, it's kind of like you don't want to break your rhythm.”

Victorino’s homer off Hudson was his first since July 8 and just his 10th hit (in 34 at-bats) since July 31.

*** More coming later today ...

Double trouble for the Phils?

Tim Hudson and John Smoltz. Could the Phillies have asked for a worse pairing in their most important series in recent memory? In order to avoid another winter spent lamenting the chances that got away during the past six months, the Phillies have to beat Hudson tonight and then Smoltz tomorrow.

Impossible?

Maybe.

Then again, maybe not.

The Phillies do have the top offense in the league, afterall. Can a good offense beat good pitching? The Phillies better hope so. After all, Hudson might get a Cy Young vote or two. At 16-9 with 3.34 ERA, Hudson has been the team’s co-ace with Smoltz and ranks in the top 10 in the league in wins (5th), innings pitched (3rd), ERA (8th), WHIP (8th) and winning percentage (10th).

Regardless, the Phillies have had some success against Hudson this season, including tuning him up for five runs and 11 hits in five innings in the game in which the Phillies took a six-run lead into the eighth inning.

Yeah, that game.

Smoltz, meanwhile, is one of the greatest big-game pitchers in recent baseball history. In 1991 he was one of the starting pitchers in the greatest game I had ever watched and, truth be told, is putting the finishing touches on a Hall-of-Fame career.

Better yet, Smoltz is the last of a dying breed of pitcher. When he goes to the mound he’s going to bring the heat and a nasty slider every time. Fascinatingly, Smoltz has been doing the same way since 1989. Since then it has been a pile of 200-plus innings per season, tons of strikeouts a short detour as the best closer in the game all mixed in with 24 playoff series.

Yep, that’s the guy the Phillies have to get past if they want to make it to the playoffs. To counter that, the Phillies will send Kyle Lohse to the mound tonight fresh off a start and a relief appearance in Washington last weekend. Forebodingly, Lohse’s one-inning relieve stint was half as long as his start.

Kyle Kendrick will face Smoltz on Thursday night, which should be interesting for a lot of reasons. The biggest facet is that Smoltz broke into the big leagues when he was 21 after a quick ascent through the minors, kind of like Kendrick. The other point of interest is that when Smoltz broke in to the majors in 1988, Kendrick was a month away from turning four-years old.

Even more interesting than those nuggets is the dichotomy of the pitching styles. Smoltz is a power pitcher who racks up the strikeouts. Kendrick is a sinkerballer, who thrives on grounders and by throwing strikes.

Needless to say, it should be an interesting two days.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious, huh?

Oh wait, there’s more where that came from:

Charlie Manuel: “Our team knows what they have to do. We've been coming back all year, scratching and clawing. We'll keep playing.”

Bobby Cox: “We know what we have to do. We have to win. We'll give it our best shot.”

Chase Utley: “Every game we approach the same way. We try to win. There's no extra pressure added.”

Jimmy Rollins: “We’ve been in this situation for a long time. We have five games left (and) we have to win five games.”

No, I don’t think they got together to rehearse the answers beforehand.

*** For those wondering (and I know you are), I am not off the Floyd beat. For now I’m a little preoccupied with the baseball pennant race and a little bit of music writing. As soon as the work load dissipates a bit, I hope to dive into the post-ruling fray with a new story or two.

In the interim, check out Trust But Verify for everything Floyd.

Tuesday pre-game fodder

Monday’s day off was a long-awaited reward for the Phillies and manager Charlie Manuel. After grinding it out for 10 tough games during the intensity of a pennant race, Manuel needed some chill time. So he spent the evening kicked back in front of the TV set, watching the Padres lose to the Giants and the Mets lose to the Nationals.

“I watched every pitch of the Padres and I watched every pitch of the Mets,” Manuel revealed before Tuesday night’s series opener against the Braves. “I’m thinking about getting the Japanese (baseball) package, too.”

Needless to say, it was quite an enjoyable evening for Manuel, who watched his Phillies pick up a half game in both the division and wild-card races from the comfort of his living room. As a result, the Phillies go into the final, six-game homestand of the regular season all tied up with the Padres, and trailing the Mets by a pair of games.

Meanwhile, the streaking Colorado Rockies are knocking on the door, just a game off the pace while the Braves still have an outside shot down three games with six to go. Baring a monumental collapse, the Phillies are in it to the end.

“We have six games left and I think we know what that means,” Manuel said.

If anything, Manuel says, the Phillies might have an advantage because they get to finish the season at home against the Braves and the lowly Nationals. The Padres have to play the Giants on the road before heading to Milwaukee to close out the season.

Meanwhile, the Rockies go to Los Angeles for three games against the Dodgers, but then return home to face the Diamondbacks and maybe even a Monday playoff game against the Phillies if it comes to that.

The Braves go to Houston to close out the season after the three games in Philadelphia.

So those six straight at home could loom large for the Phillies, right Charlie?

“One of the biggest advantages we have this year is we’re playing at home,” the skipper said. “I think that could be very big for us. We’ve had big crowds all year and the more noise we have, the more energy that brings and the more we get after it.”

The playoffs and potential travel plans as well as the possibility of a tiebreaking playoff game were a few the popular topics of conversation amongst the baseball scribes on Monday afternoon, with the consensus agreeing that it could come down to a game against the Rockies at Coors to determine the final four National League teams.

Manuel’s future But another underlying theme was Manuel’s status as manager for next season and beyond with the Phillies. With the Philadelphia Daily News reporting that general manager Pat Gillick would not seek a contract extension when his current deal expires after the 2008 season, and Manuel’s contract set to expire at the end of this season, there has been a little scuttlebutt regarding the skipper’s status. After all, Manuel has exceeded expectations this season by leading a team ravaged by injuries to first place in the wild-card race in the last week of the season. Moreover, only Pat Moran, the Phillies’ manager from 1915 to 1918, won more games in his first three seasons than Manuel.

So Charlie, has Gillick – or the Phillies’ brass – broached the subject of an extension?

“No, not at all,” he said. “Matter of fact it’s alright. I want to stay focused on our team. It’s not about me. It’s about our team and it’s about winning. I don’t have time to worry about anything else.”

In fact, Manuel says he doesn’t have the slightest inkling about what is going to happen.

“I don’t know anything about that until I sit down with him and that won’t happen until the off season,” the manager said.

In other words, the future is now for Manuel.

Rotation set And as such, Manuel has made the proper adjustment to his team’s pitching rotation for the final sprint. Adam Eaton, the much-maligned starting pitcher whose 6.36 ERA ranks last amongst the league’s starters, was informed during a lengthy pre-batting practice conversation that he will pitch on Saturday afternoon against the Nats, instead of taking his regularly scheduled turn on Thursday night against John Smoltz.

That means rookie Kyle Kendrick will pitch on Thursday instead of Friday, and Cole Hamels will go on Friday instead of Saturday afternoon.

Lining it up this way, the Phillies can use Hamels in Game 1 of the NLDS on regular rest… if it comes to that.

Needless to say, Manuel explained that the Phillies haven’t planned that far ahead, but simply “was the best way for us to go.” That’s how Manuel says he explained it to Eaton, who also faced the Nationals in his last start on Friday night in Washington where he gave up three runs on five hits, five walks and two hit batsmen in just five innings.

“He took it fine. He’s OK,” Manuel said of what looked like a decidedly one-sided conversation. “We have to wins some games now. I don’t want somebody to say I didn’t tell them something. I have no problem telling anybody anything. We actually had a pretty good talk.”

Et cetera Having used go-to relievers Brett Myers, Tom Gordon and J.C. Romero for five straight games last week, Manuel asked starter Kyle Lohse for a relief stint on Sunday’s game. Set to throw a bullpen session anyway, Manuel asked the newcomer starter to do his bullpen in a game instead.

Though Monday’s day off gave the ‘pen a day to refresh, Manuel said he will look to a starter or two for a relief outing if the opportunity presents itself.

“It depends on what game,” Manuel said. “Lohse is one of those guys that I like to throw an inning because of the stuff he has and his arm. His stuff is why I’d put him in a game.”

*** The Phillies’ rival San Diego suffered an odd injury in the most crucial time when slugging outfield Milton Bradley tore his ACL while being restrained by manager Bud Black during an argument with an umpire. was injured when his own manager spun him to the ground while trying to keep him from going after umpire Mike Winters during an eighth-inning confrontation in Sunday's 7-3 loss to Colorado at Petco Park.

When asked if he had ever injured a player when attempting to restrain him from getting into a confrontation with an umpire, Manuel said, “I don’t know, but I always wanted to.”

When asked if the fiery Milton Bradley was one of those players back when the pair worked together with the Cleveland Indians, Manuel dodged the question.

“No comment,” he smiled.

I have had enough of these (&*#@!&$) snakes on my (&*#@!&$) site

Yeah, you know who you are...