Get Out The Brooms

For the second time this season, the Phils reached into their closet and pulled out their brooms by t4 game sweeping the San Diego Padres this past weekend.

The Phils won the final game of the series today behind Roy Halladay who bounced back from his bad last start. Halladay pitched 8.2 innings and only surrendered 1 earned run. He had 14 K's and allowed just 6 base runners. The only real hiccup of Halladay's start today came in the bottom of the 9th when he allowed a run on three hits. Charlie eventually called on Antonio Bastardo to come in and get the final out. Although Halladay was unable to get the complete game, seeing him have a dominant start after his last outing was good to see. And Bastardo only pitched to one batter, but to see him come into a pressure situation and get a big out is definitely a good sign. I think we can expect big things from Bastardo out of the pen this year.

I know I sound like a broken record, but once again the Phils offense did just enough. The Phils big inning came in the top of the 6th when Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard led off the inning with back to back singles. Ben Francisco then had an RBI single to score Rollins, and John Mayberry Jr. followed that with a RBI double to score Howard. For insurance, Shane Victorino led off the 7th with an inside the park home run to give the Phils a 3-0 lead. Not an offensive explosion, but good enough once again.

The Phils offense scored just 12 runs in the series but it was significantly more than the Padres who only manufactured 3 runs. The Padres were blanked twice, and the Phils arms were able to give the offense a bit of a breather.

After the sweep the Phils are now 15-6 and are just 2 wins away from tying the franchise record for most wins in April and with 5 games remaining in the Phils should have no problem breaking that record. The Phils will now travel to Arizona to take on the Diamondbacks. Cliff Lee will get the start tomorrow night. Stay tuned to the blog for a complete Phillies Diamondbacks Preview.