Chooch Ruiz gets mobbed after winning hit.

The Phillies grabbed momentum by the throat last night and this time they are not going to let it slip away.

What an amazing comeback last night. If you changed the channel and never looked back after the Phillies slipped into a 9-2 hole in the top of the eight, you missed the most amazing win of the season. How amazing? Danys Baez was the only relief pitcher who didn’t give up a run and he got the win.

The Phillies made it a game in the eighth inning by scoring four runs to make the score 9-6. Then in the ninth the team got to torture Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton once again. He must have nightmares when he sees Phillies pinstripes.

He hit Placido Polanco. Mike Sweeney fought off some tough pitches and earned a nine-pitch walk. Jayson Werth then walked to load the bases for Ben Francisco. Ben hit a double play grounder, but … oops! Dodgers third baseman Casey Blake let it go through his legs for a two run error. Now the score was 9-8 with Mr. Clutch, Carlos Ruiz, coming to the plate. He scalded a Broxton slider off the centerfield wall and the Phillies celebrated a 10-9 victory as a nice appetizer before a three game set against the Mets in New York beginning tonight.

A small measure of credit goes to Larry Bowa, the Dodgers third base coach. According to Phillies broadcaster Tom McCarthy, Bowa told him before the game he was worried about “Johnny Bench” tonight. “Johnny Bench?” asked McCarthy. Said Bowa, “Yeah, Carlos Ruiz kills us!”

That he does, Larry, that he does.

Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or what’s happening in the region. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

The problem with success is that sometimes we can become complacent. We assume everything will continue to run smoothly, so when it doesn’t we are surprised and don’t react as well as someone who anticipates and prepares for problems. Phillies fans were always prepared for the worst; that was our nature for decades of bad teams and low expectations with the rare 1980 and 1993 highpoints.

Nowadays, however, Phillies fans are suffering from this syndrome in reverse. We are so primed for success — a World Series title in 2008, a second National League title in 2009 — we aren’t reacting well to problems.

Chase Utley was injured sliding into second.

The front running Phillies have suddenly become the team in third place in the National League East behind the hated Braves and Mets. The Phillies hitters spent a month in a deep freeze that saw the team shut out seven times, including three straight times to the Mets. Elite teams are not supposed to hit this badly for this long — you can’t use “that’s baseball” to explain it.

Now, just when the hitting is coming around, the nagging injuries that have plagued the team all season and caused disabled list stints for Jimmy Rollins, Brad Lidge, Joe Blanton, J.A. Happ, Carlos Ruiz, Ryan Madson and Chad Durbin, has added two all-stars to the growing list. Chase Utley hurt his thumb sliding into second and Placido Polanco’s elbow has been bothering him off and on since he was hit by a pitch April 16.

Losing Chase and Polly for 15 days, let alone the horrifying thought that it might be longer, suggest that panic is a pretty acceptable emotion. I guess this is how the Mets fans felt when they suffered though so many injuries last season.

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Rollins is mobbed at home after his game winning homer.

When Phillies shortstop and sparkplug Jimmy Rollins was injured a second time, just a week after returning to the lineup a month ago, you could feel the air come out of the Phillies balloon. While his loss didn’t explain the complete offensive collapse, it was a contributing factor. Not only was in missed in the lead-off spot, but Shane Victorino’s punch was missed at the bottom of the line up.

Last night as I was telling my Mom and my TV set that it was time for Rollins to prove he was ready to lead the team’s comeback, he smacked a deep drive to right, a two-run walk off home run that gave the Phillies a 7-6 win over Cleveland. Amazingly, it was the first walk off homer of his career. After the game Charley Manual gave J-Roll a noogie and Victorino gave him a shaving cream pie to the face.

While there are concerns about the Phils’ starting pitching and the bullpen, especially with the loss of Chad Durbin last night with a pulled hamstring, you could feel the energy building. The Phillies have their swagger back, and when this team is confident, it wins ballgames.

Welcome back J-Roll.

I am trying to curb my enthusiasm. I looked at the schedule and saw that the Phils have been given games with Washington, Houston and Washington again to start the season.

Still, we lost our opening series to DC last year so seeing us give Roy Halladay 11 runs was great. All the runs since then have added to the sense that the Phillies are going to be really amazing this season. Look, my big fat grin is bound to be wiped away if say, we get swept by the Braves or the Giants later this month, but this is the first time we have been 4-1 to start the season since 1993. This team is superior to the ‘93 team, but a key trait they share is the swagger that comes with supreme confidence.

The Big Fella is not going to keep up this one strikeout pace and the top four hitters are not going to keep hitting .400, but they will keep scoring runs in bunches.

The starting pitching has need a lot of those runs, especially Rip Van Moyer yesterday, but another bright spot has been a strong job by the bullpen, the perceived weakness of the team to start the season.

Today should be interesting as the winless Astros send their ace named Roy, Roy Oswalt, against our top gun Halliday in a showdown at the O.K. Corral (okay Minute Maid Park).

The offense might slow down to give away to a true pitcher’s duel, and we’ll be able to see how well the big boppers can do against a top line hurler.

P.S.: Go Flyers!

Placido Polanco watches his grand slam.

I know that winning the opening game of the 162 game regular season is no big deal, but the Phillies had not won their opening game in four years. Therefore I was happy that Roy Halladay was great as our new stud top pitcher, and that the Phillies pounded the Washington Nationals 11-1. Yes, its only the Nats, but we lost to them opening day 2008. Of course things turned out pretty good that season as I recall.

The only thing that is annoying about opening day is that your team doesn’t play the next day. When you win, you want to see your team go out the next night and win again. If you lose, you want to see your team bounce back.

It is a no win situation for avid baseball fans, but I have Justified to watch on FX instead tonight.

Roy Halladay opens the season today.

Yes, I know. The Eagles bombshell has pushed the beginning of the Phillies season to the second biggest sports story in Washington, D.C. today. However, the Phillies are the team that has already brought us a World Series and back to the big dance last year.
I’m trying to temper my expectations, but damn this is a good team with the addition of Roy Halladay and Placido Polanco, and despite the Joe Blanton injury and the uncertainty in the bullpen to start the season. The Phillies should hit enough to make the latter a mute point most of the time.

I am excited. Baseball is back and the Phillies should be able to overcome the Sports Illustrated curse (Halladay on the cover for the baseball issue), to make it back to the World Series in 2010.

Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

On paper, the Phillies-Dodgers showdown for the National League Championship looks like an evenly matched battle. The starting pitching is solid, but not outstanding. Both these teams can hit, and hit with power and both have a monster clutch hitter in Ryan Howard and Manny Ramirez, respectively. The Phillies come into the series on the high of a for-the-ages comeback win to clinch their divisional showdown with the Rockies. The Dodgers, meanwhile, swept the dangerous St Louis Cardinals despite the Card’s outstanding pitching. Since they faced each other last year with basically the same team make-up, they know each other.
Here is how the series breaks down.

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