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.

You have to love the fall. As noted in my last column, fall festivals are fabulous, and if you are a baseball fan, October baseball is the best. Baseball is a game that throws the unexpected at you daily, and that is exactly what happened last night as the Phillies’ forgotten man, the 25th guy on a 25-man roster came through last night.

Oswalt takes the mound tonight. (Tom Briglia PhotoGraphics Photography)

Ben Francisco has had a season he would like to forget. He began the season as the Phillies’ starting rightfielder, but lost that job to Domonic Brown because he couldn’t hit consistently. Once Hunter Pence arrived via trade, Francisco saw even less time as John Mayberry, Jr. became part of a platoon in leftfield and was the primary righthanded pinch hitter off the bench.

Most Phillies fans forgot Francisco was even on the team until he came to the plate last night in the seventh inning of a scoreless playoff game. With the series tied 1-1, with two men on and two out, Francisco put a sweet swing on a sinker from St. Louis hurler Jaime Garcia that didn’t sink enough.

The three run blast into the Phillies bullpen was just enough of a cushion for the Phillies to hold on to a 3-2 victory and a 2-1 lead in the five-game series.

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J-Werth scores winning run last night. (Photo by: Tom Briglia/PhotoGraphics Photography)

How sweet a sweep it was as the Philadelphia Phillies killed the Braves dreams of a division title, polishing off the three-game sweep of Atlanta with a taut 1-0 victory. Roy Oswalt, Ryan Madsen and Brad Lidge combined for the one hitter, and Jayson Werth scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth on a double by Raaaaaul Ibanez.

The Phillies, at 92-61, have won 10 games in a row for the first time this season, and are 31 games above .500 for the first time since 1993.

The Phillies drove us crazy for a good stretch of the season — they were just five games above .500 at the All Star break — but they have turned on the jets in the second half, including a sizzling 18-3 so far in September.

The H2O pitching trio of Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt are 12-0 this month; there can be no doubt the Phillies have the best starting pitching heading into the playoffs. Yes, baseball gods, I am jumping the gun but this is not 1964 — we have a 6-game lead in the division with nine games to play.

This will be another Red October for the Phillies phaithful.

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 Phillies are hot and are at home for their longest stretch of the season, with two more games against the Giants, three games against Washington and four games against Houston. Add in the return of Chase Utley, and the expected return of Ryan Howard later this week, and the Fightins should be in first place soon — at least on paper. Problem is, the games aren’t played on paper.

Roy Oswalt (Photos by: Tom Briglia / PhotoGraphics Photography)

During what looks like a soft stretch for the Phils, excluding the two games with the Giants, Atlanta is not exactly facing murder’s row themselves. They have two more games at home against Washington (where they are 43-16, the best home record in the majors), followed by a road trip against the fading Cubs and three against Colorado, ten games back in the west.

Both the Phillies and the Braves have great starting pitching and have done well despite major injuries (Chipper Jones is lost for the season). The Braves have the better bullpen but the Phillies have a much better offense.

When the Phillies still had their best players on the field, they had a horrible stretch beginning in late May. The entire team went in a slump that could really not be explained. Three shutout losses to the Mets was the nadir of that stretch.

In the same way, the Phillies going 19-5 while Utley was out, Placido Polanco was just getting back and both Shane Victorino and Howard landed on the DL cannot be explained either.

Sure, Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth got hot, Carlos Ruiz delivered key hits, GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. got Roy Oswalt, and the back end of the bullpen started pitching like it was 2008 again, but Jimmy Rollins was still popping up on the first pitch and the middle relief was no relief at all.

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