Phillies actually gain a game in the standings!

Written by Mike Mariano | 24 July 2010

Tonight the Phillies pulled to within six games back in divisional race due to a fabled occurrence: for the first time in months (or so it seems) the Phillies won a game and the Braves lost a game -- on the same day.  They said it couldn't be done, but somehow someway we did it men.  It took:

Roy Halladay throwing 8 scoreless, allowing 5 hits and k'ing 9.

3 hits, 3 RBIs from Raul Ibanez who has aged ten years in the last one.

a 5 run inning to ignite the offense.

Stealing signs from the outfield with binoculars.

Just kidding about the last one (hey the scandal did start against the Rockies last time), but it was a sweet win.  A decisive, earned victory for the first time post-break.  Roy Halladay was superb, unhittable the majority of the night.  Also, very happy for Raul.  It's been a long season for him and it'd be nice to see him silence some critics (me included) and put up a strong second half.  One more note on why this is a sweet win, the Rockies are ahead of us in the wild card -- which is something to start taking seriously if you haven't been yet.

Tomorrow, Ubaldo Jimenez v. Kyle Kendrick.  I'm going to chalk that one up as a loss and not because I'm trying to reverse jinx it (yes I am), but because well there's no good reason not to.  Wish Kendrick the best, but it's going to be a tough one for the kid.