Phillies sweep Braves, reduce magic number to 4

FROM THE MORNING CALL

PHILADELPHIA — With his ball sailing toward the left-field corner, Raul Ibanez had a few words to say to himself as he ran down the first-base line in the eighth inning.

"I said about 14 prayers running to first," the left fielder admitted as the crowd of reporters around him cracked up. "No really. Really quick. You'd be surprised how fast things run through your head when you're hoping a ball stays fair."

The ball Ibanez smashed off lefty Jonny Venters landed just inside the foul line and scored Jayson Werth for the game's only run in the Phillies' 1-0 win over the Braves on Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park.


With the victory, the Phillies (92-61) now have a season-high six-game lead over the Braves and they trimmed their magic number to clinch the NL East to four.

"I think we can sense it," closer Brad Lidge said of the Phillies clinching their fourth consecutive playoff berth.

The Phillies have now won 10 in a row, something they also did a season ago. The last time before that was in 1991.

Werth, who drew a two-out walk in the eighth, said the latest surge is the result of the Phillies clicking on all cylinders.

"We've been pitching good, playing good defense and timely hitting has been coming," the right fielder said. "It's all coming around at about the right time."

Although he didn't get the win, Roy Oswalt provided the Phillies with yet another outstanding outing. The right-hander allowed just two base runners (one walk and one hit) in seven innings. He has now allowed one run or fewer in six of his last seven starts and seven of his last nine.

Since being traded from Houston on July 29, Oswalt is 7-1 with a 1.76 ERA in 11 starts.

But it's not the numbers he's posted that has him so pumped. It's this team and the way they go about doing things.

"It's funny," he said. "Coming from not in contention to back into it, it's a lot of fun. This is what baseball is. You go out there and you feel like you're going to win it every day. You get in some ruts where if you win one or two games in a series, you're kind of satisfied. These guys are not. These guys want to win it all the way out. You feel that coming into the clubhouse every day."

Ibanez's was picked apart by critics earlier this year because of his lack of hitting.

But he's making a solid case for all that chatter to be put to rest.

Ibanez is hitting .312 with eight homers and 40 RBIs in 62 games since the All-Star break after batting .243 with seven homers and 39 RBIs in 85 first-half games.

"He's cut down his swing," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "It's quicker now and shorter. It's got more snap to it. Before he was striding real fast and then it was flattening out and he'd get long and get beat with fastballs. Before you could throw the ball up by him. But now he'll adjust and concentrate on being short and quick. And he stays in real good on lefties when he hits the ball all over the field. [Tuesday night], he had a double into the right-field corner and [Wednesday night] he had a double in the left-field corner."

After Oswalt departed, Braves had just one other base runner all night. Lidge gave up a two-out walk in the ninth, but recorded his 26th save and third in three nights. Only two other times in his Phillies career has he saved three games in a row; he saved four straight in 2009 and three straight in 2008.

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