Midnight’s Children

The Phillies got just what they were hoping for when they traded for Joe Blanton a few weeks ago. He was able to give the team 7 strong innings last night as the Phillies beat the Cardinals 2-1. Blanton allowed 1 run on 4 hits and 2 walks his best outing so far as a Phillie. If he can continue to give the team innings like this the trade will turn out to be a positive. They will need his best pitching to keep the gap growing between the Phillies & the Marlins and Mets.

The Phillies only managed 4 hits in the game but 2 of them were of the long ball variety. Greg Dobbs hit his 4th of the year in the 3rd inning and Ryan Howard hit his 31st in front of his famly in St Louis in the 4th inning to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead. That would turn out to be all the support Blanton would need. The bullpen continued to sparkle as Romero & Durbin combined for a scoreless 8th inning and Lidge came on in the 9th inning to record his 27th consecutive save. The lead is now 1-1/2 over the Marlins and 2 over the Mets who lost for the 2nd night in a row to Houston. The rubber game of the Cardinal series is tonight with Brett Myers 4-9 vs Todd Wellemeyer 8-4. Myers is looking for another strong effort to follow his win against the Nationals earlkier this week. The Phillies are hoping he can repeat his performance.