The Philadelphia Phillies enter today’s get-away game with the Cincinnati Reds riding the tide of a new 3 game winning streak and having won 12 of their 13 games.

Not only the Phils reached to within 2 games of the NY Mets for the NL East lead, they have been instrumental in the NL Central lead changing hands from the Cincinnati Reds to the St. Louis Cardinals with the Reds now one game behind in 2nd place.  The 3rd Place Houston Astros are breathing down Cincinnati’s neck, now 2 games behind the Reds.

Over Friday and Saturday, the Phils defeated Cincinnati 8-4 and 2-0. 

On Friday, Ryan Madison (4-1) became the Phils wins leader getting the decision, despite blowning save, in relief of new arrival Cole Hamels who pitched 5 innings of shutout ball, giving up 1 hit, 7 strikeouts but walking 5 in his big league debut.  Hamels left the game in the 6th inning with a 2-0 lead.

The Phils then scored 1 in the 7th inning, 1 in the 8th and 4 in the 9th while Cincinnati came back in the bottom of the 9th with 2 inconsequential runs in the bottom of the 9th as Tom Gordon came in to get the last 2 outs and to record his 11th save.  Cincinnati starter Elizardo Ramirez (1-3) took the loss for the Reds giving up 3 runs, 7 hits in 6 inings.

Ryan Howard homered to left center in the 1st inning for his 10th homer of the season with a man on as did  Shane Victorino, who clouted his 1st homer, also with a man on in the 9th inning.  Victorino was 4 for 4 for the game.  Austin Kearns solo homered to left field in the 6th inning for the Reds, his 7th homer of the season while sporting a .317 batting average.

On Saturday, Jon Lieber (3-4) and Dave Williams (2-3) locked up in a brilliant pitching dual, Lieber pitching unquestionably his finest game of the the young season, pitching a perfect game over 6 2/3 innings retiring the first 20 batters to face him and Williams nearly matching him over 6 innings. Lieber lasted 8 2/3 innings in earning the win, having given up but 2 hits while striking out 7.  He issued no walks.  Losing pitcher Williams last 8 1/3 giving up both runs on 5 hits.   David Bell doubled to right driving in Ryan Howard in the 7th and Chase Utley scored on a wild pitch in the eighth.  Tom Gordon was credited with his 12th save in retiring the side in the bottom of the 9th.

The Phils gained a game on the NY Mets and are now 2 back as the Mets split the first two games of their series with the Milwaukee Brewers; the Mets losing on Friday 9-6 after getting out to a 3-0 lead and coming back to win on Saturday by a score of 9-8 after blowing 6-2 and 8-4 leads.

While Cincinnati was losing the 2 to the Phils, the St. Louis Cardinals were defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-3 on Friday and 9-1 on Saturday to take over 1st place in the NL Central by 1 full game over the Reds.

The Houston Astros stayed close on Cincinnati’s tail spliting it’s first 2 games with the Colorado Rockies, defeating the Rockies by a 12-2 score on Friday and losing a tight one to the Rockies 2-1 on Saturday. 

For more scores, recaps and box scores of Friday’s and Saturday’s games, click here and here.

For schedule, previews and scores of today games, click here.

*Please note; There will be no game reports or All-Time Highlights on Monday as this blog’s computer will be down for maintenance.  Hopefully, we’ll be back up and running by Tuesday or Wednesday.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 14th, 2006 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.