Fool Me Once....

So once again it all comes down to the final weekend of the season. Would the Phillies have it any other way? Put another way, thank goodness the Mets are in another accommodating mood, losing four of their last five including last night in overtime to Chicago after taking a 5-1 lead earlier.

What it all boils down to is the Phils magic number for both the Divisional title and Wild Card is 3, which neatly matches the number of games remaining. Of course magic numbers are combination deals: wins by your team coupled with losses by the other guys. Still, the Phillies could have avoided the mathematics altogether by beating Atlanta the last two nights, but the Braves had other ideas.

Brett Myers was awful again last night, the second straight outing in which he had neither command nor his fastball. The guy sure knows how to ruin a feel-good story, but, then, Myers has never really been a warm and fuzzy sort of fellow. So, Brett, fool me once, shame on me; fool me twice.....

Myers wasn't helped by Jayson Werth's misplay of a line drive to right center; nor was he helped by Ryan Howard's 18th error of the season, another throwing error on the front end of a potential double play ball. A half inning earlier Howard had pulled the Phils into a 3-3 tie with his 47th home run of the season. Ah, yes, the big guy gaveth and the big guy tooketh away. Some day we may see a more complete player but it won't be any time soon.

Despite the miscues, the night was really a lost cause right out of the gate as Myers pitched batting practice to a lineup missing Chipper Jones...that is until he hit a pinch-hit three-run homer later in the game. The Braves scored two runs in the first inning, another in the third and six in the fifth inning. The Phils played catch up until that fifth inning rout; then they played out the string.

Pity poor Charlie Manuel. He certainly expected Myers to go deeper into the game (he lasted 4.1 innings) and he desperately wanted to rest his tired bullpen, but Myers did his best imitation of the guy who was sent down to the minors prior to the All Star break rather than the guy who looked a lot more like a big time big league pitcher until he imploded in Florida last week and Philadelphia last night. Manuel clearly wanted to give Myers a chance to find his groove but all the right hander could do was groove one pitch after another to the Braves. He who hesitates to go to the bullpen sooner than later loses the game.

In successive nights the Phillies two putative aces, Cole Hamels and Myers, lost to a depleted but not deflated Braves team whom they swept in Atlanta a week ago. It remains for the real ace of this year's staff, Jamie Moyer to show them the way.