Split brings Phils within half game of Braves

THE PHILLIES stopped feigning ignorance long ago. Yes, they are watching the scoreboard. Yes, they know exactly what the Braves do. And yes, they are well aware that they appear to be on a collision course with their NL East rivals, whom they play six times in the final 12 games of the season.

"It's kind of traveling that way," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said last night after his team split a day-night doubleheader with the Florida Marlins to pull to within a half game of Atlanta. "It's kind of like a hurricane. They're predicting it's going up the coast and the track it's going to take. This is kind of similar to that."

After all of it was over, they were 79-60 and closer to first place than they had been since May 31.

Good luck categorizing this storm, though. While meteorologists have weather patterns and ocean currents at their disposal, there is no advanced degree for figuring out the Phillies' offense. They started yesterday by making a 28-year-old career minor leaguer look like a young up-and-comer in a 7-1 loss, and they ended it by making a young up-and-comer look like a career minor leaguer in a 7-4 victory.

Against Adalberto Mendez, who was making his first big-league start after eight seasons in the minor leagues, they managed just one hit in six scoreless innings, getting their only run in the ninth inning on an RBI single by Jayson Werth.

Against Anibal Sanchez, who was 10-6 with a 2.88 ERA in his previous 20 starts, they scored seven runs in four innings, most of the damage coming in a five-run second.

Mendez didn't do anything particularly tricky. He relied heavily on his fastball, while mixing in a slider. He walked two batters, hit a third with a pitch, and allowed his only hit on a second-inning single by Brian Schneider. He equaled the Phillies' hit total with his single to rightfield in the seventh, which ended with him pulling up lame with a quad strain.

The Phillies got their only other hits in the ninth inning, which they entered trailing 7-0. Ryan Howard led off with a double and Werth singled him home.

Mendez is the fifth starter to hold the Phillies to one hit in an outing (minimum: six innings), the most against the team in one season since at least 1920, according to box scores cataloged by Baseball-Reference.com.

"He was everything that we kind of figured he was," Manuel said. "He threw fastball/slider and we didn't do too much with him."

But in the nightcap, they took advantage of some crucial second-inning command lapses by Sanchez. After back-to-back singles by Jimmy Rollins and Raul Ibanez, Sanchez walked Domonic Brown and Carlos Ruiz to force a run home. A line out by Roy Oswalt left the bases loaded and one out for the Phillies, who got an RBI single from Shane Victorino (Brown was thrown out at home after third-base coach Sam Perlozzo attempted to score him from second), a two-run double by Placido Polanco and an RBI single by Chase Utley to take a 5-1 lead.

Oswalt allowed three home runs, one of them a two-run shot by Hanley Ramirez, but finished with four runs in seven innings while improving to 5-1 with a 2.31 ERA in eight starts since the Phillies acquired him from the Astros in late July. After Cameron Maybin hit a solo shot in the top of the fifth, the Phillies answered with two runs in the bottom of the frame.

"They have a young team, and if you get the ball close to the plate, they're going to swing," Oswalt said. "I wouldn't say they were bad location pitches, just two not smart pitches. Leading 5-1, if somebody is going to beat you, you should make them beat you the other way."

Utley went 2-for-4 with a run and two RBI, while Polanco went 2-for-4 with a double, triple, walk, two RBI and two runs. Ibanez also had two hits and an RBI double.

Brad Lidge earned his 21st save in 26 opportunities, allowing a two-out hit to Emilio Bonifacio before striking out Scott Cousins to end the game.

Lidge has allowed one earned run in his last 17 appearances, surrendering just seven hits and three walks while striking out 18 and recording 11 of 12 save opportunities during that stretch.

"Let's not look too far ahead," said Victorino, who went 3-for-5 while leading off in place of the slumping Rollins, who hit fifth. "We'll just keep playing. We worry about ourselves. We're not worried about what [the Braves] are doing. We control our own destiny. We've got to go out there and play our baseball."

The Phillies recalled outfielder John Mayberry Jr. from Triple A Lehigh Valley after the game.

For more Phillies coverage and opinion, read David Murphy's blog, High Cheese, at http://go.philly.com/highcheese. Follow him on Twitter at

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