Lucy’s Dugout

By Lucy Moran

Best road trip in franchise history

The Phillies' 9-1 West Coast road trip ended this past Wednesday, and was acclaimed the best road trip in franchise history. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week were more fine examples of the excellence our Phillies have been showing all season long in the offense, defense and pitching abilities, along with their determination never to give up until the 27th out. Having been the National League Eastern Division leaders since day one of the 2011 season, the Pinstripers are 77-40, eight and a half games in front of second-place Atlanta Braves, with a winning percentage of .658.

On Monday, behind Halladay, the Phils defeated the L.A. Dodgers 5-3. With that win under his belt, Halladay became the first starting pitcher to earn his 15th victory in the National League—ERA 2.22. Simply amazing!! On Tuesday, the 2-1 Phils' victory belonged to Cliff Lee. Not only did he pitch eight shutout innings, had 10 strikeouts and scattered four hits, he won his own ballgame with his second career home run. Just remarkable!!

Wednesday night's game did not start out so well under the pitching direction of Vance Worley ... but, oh, what an ending! Down 6-0 after three innings, the Phillies rallied and scored four times in the sixth inning for a 9-7 lead. Ryan Howard's homer was his 25th. With two outs, this two-run homer was the tiebreaking run. Earlier, in the second inning, Raul Ibanez had an RBI ground out, that cut Los Angeles lead to 6-5. I can go on and on about Wednesday's game, but then there would be no room for Jerry's Take. Hope you did not miss that game, or any for that matter.

Please catch our champs Friday at Citizens Bank Park 7 p.m. on CSN, Saturday 7 p.m. on CSN and Sunday 1:30 p.m. on WPHL. We will be playing the Washington Nationals.

 

Jerry's Take

By Jerry Moliver

 

For my "Take" each week, I ask myself what happened that was unusual, controversial, critical or amusing. Last week, I wrote about the acquisition of Hunter Pence, and the small part I played in the deal (truthfully, no part). So, now that we have closure on filling that need, there should be no excuse for not winning the World Series. We have the best chance.

So, let me look for something controversial. What precipitated the suspension of Shane Victorino? It is an unwritten "law" that a player should not steal a base when his team has a six-run lead, late in the game. Jimmy Rollins stole second on Friday against the Giants, and Victorino was the victim of the retaliation for the steal. Victorino ran to the pitcher, a scuffle broke out and, as a result, Victorino was suspended. The pitcher denied that hitting Victorino was intentional. So, Victorino appealed, got to play all three games against the Dodgers, and will probably drop the appeal, but not play against the Washington Nationals this weekend.

For the rest of my Take, here are some amusing and unusual one-liners. Did you know the Houston Astros are paying the Phillies $11 million of Roy Oswalt's contract and $2 million of Hunter Pence's. Look for Santa Claus (Ed Wade) to be fired soon.  Did you know that Ryan Howard has the rights to buy eight tickets to home games? I know he gives them to under-privileged kids, so I am okay with it. Did you know Ryan Madson gets one $150,000 for finishing 30, 35, 40 or 45 games?  

Did you know that there are 54 National League players on the disabled list at this time? With this information, you can impress your friends and sound like you are an expert at Phillies facts.