Blanton, Lidge look strong as Phillies beat Braves

THOSE OF A certain age would make a reference to a broken record. Those who have lived through fewer sunrises and sunsets would compare it to a CD that skips.

Same thing. Once again, Phillies closer Brad Lidge stood in front of his locker and talked optimistically about the future. Talked about how good he was feeling and how his stuff was where it needed to be and how he was on the verge of getting on a roll.

Until now, these have been mostly false alarms. Dead ends. Overly sunny predictions.

So the words that Lidge said after his second straight 1-2-3 save in a 3-2 win over the Atlanta Braves last night before yet another sellout crowd at Citizens Bank Park sounded familiar. Except that maybe, just maybe, he really has turned the corner.

It's not just that he got the job done in the series finale in front of a national television audience. It's that he's starting to string some effective appearances together. Six of his last seven times to the mound he hasn't allowed a run, and he has given up a total of one hit in those appearances. The seventh was a memorable meltdown in Pittsburgh and, yes, it counts. But it was also the fourth straight day he had pitched.

Listen carefully, then, to what Lidge said as the witching hour approached last night.

"I feel great," is what he said. "The control of my slider, for the first time my last couple of outings, has been as good as it's been all year. It's been a tough year, obviously, but I'm finally getting to the point where I feel my stuff and control is as good as it's been all year."

Now he has a bit of a recent track record to base that on, enough batters walking back to the dugout muttering to themselves to allow the Phillies to cross their fingers and hope that he has turned himself around, just in time for the stretch drive and the playoffs.

Life is pretty doggone good for manager Charlie Manuel these days.

Starter Joe Blanton survived a hang-on-for-dear-life first inning, with the help of a pair of sparkling defensive plays from shortstop Jimmy Rollins, and shut down the Atlanta lineup the rest of the way. He now has a 2.14 earned run average in his last 10 starts.

"I was a little off in the first inning," he said. "I was missing all over the place, especially over the plate. You just have to keep plugging until you find yourself."

The Phillies have an eight-game lead in the National League East. They have most of the pieces back from a team that won the World Series last year. There are no guarantees in baseball, of course, but Manuel probably wouldn't trade places with any other manager in the league right now, either.

With September on the doorstep, the magic number is 26. Any combination of Phillies wins and Braves/Marlins losses that adds up to Chase Utley's uniform number clinches a third straight division title.

Yeah, there's absolutely nothing for Big Chuck to complain about.

Well, there is one cloud on the otherwise sunny horizon.

The Phillies have just 11 hits in their last 66 at-bats with runners in scoring position, a .167 average, including 2-for-10 last night.

"Here lately we've been having a hard time knocking in runs," Manuel said before the game. "The ones I call easy ribbies or easy runs, we're having trouble knocking those in. That's a concern, yeah.

"Are you going to leave guys out there? Without a doubt. But you're supposed to knock in a better percentage of them. Right now, we've been leaving a lot of guys out there . . . I know they can do it, and they do, too. It's just a matter of getting it done.

"I don't care how you do it, just get it done. Man on third, nobody out and the infield's back, hit a groundball and we've got a run. That's not so easy. It's hard at times. But, again, we're supposed to knock that guy in. I don't know the percentage, but it should be pretty good. And we haven't been doing that, haven't been scoring runs like we should."

So it's a good thing Manuel wasn't wearing an ESPN microphone in the bottom of the fifth. The Phillies loaded the bases with nobody out against Braves starter Jair Jurrjens . . . and didn't score.

After Raul Ibanez led off with a walk and Pedro Feliz and Carlos Ruiz singled, Blanton hit the ball hard. But right at first baseman LaRoche, who doubled Ruiz off first. Rollins grounded out and the inning was over.

With some help from the Braves, the Phillies got another chance in the seventh. And this time they did enough to win the game.

Again, it started with an Ibanez walk. Feliz dropped a bunt, but third baseman Chipper Jones threw it away for an error, leaving runners on second and third.

Ruiz hit a long fly to the leftfield corner. No matter what, it would have been a sacrifice fly. But Garret Anderson, after a long run, dropped the ball and two runs crossed the plate. The official scorer first called it an error then reversed himself and gave Ruiz a double.

Manuel said he called the bunt. "That was a big play for us," he said. "We may have caught them by surprise."

The Phillies are 22 games over .500. The pieces are falling neatly into place. There is nothing to complain about. Well, almost nothing, anyway.