Treading water

The Red Sox and Rays each split their double headers against the Blue Jays and Yankees, so we remain two games out - not impossible to make up, but it's looking like a sweep in Tampa this week may be necessary.

The Phillies won handily, but only picked up a half game on the Mets, who split their double header against the Braves. OK, that's improvement (2.5 games out) - plus, they picked up a whole game on the Wild Card-leading Brewers, whose lead is now two games heading into tomorrow's double header. The Astros, in limbo because of Hurricane Ike, are a half game behind the Phillies.

Young Cole Hamels may have been paying attention to Jamie Moyer's outing the other night. It wasn't his best start, but he gutted it out for 6.1 innings to get the win as the Phillies beat the Brewers 7-3.

Most of the offense (except Pat Burrell and Carlos Ruiz) pitched in, led by three hits, three runs and two RBI by Jimmy Rollins.

They have to at least split tomorrow's double header, but if they sweep, I'm believing again. {I'm already there; I hope tomorrow's not a letdown.}

Red Sox: In the first game, Paul Byrd pitched like the crappy Paul Byrd I've been expecting, and the Sox lost a gutless performance 8-1 with only five friggin' hits. The box score looks like a spring training game. David Aardsma got beat around, too - when did he come back? Kevin Cash pinch hit for Dustin Pedroia and stayed in the game at third base; that's his first major league appearance at any position besides catcher.

The Sox finally woke up late in the second game. After trailing 5-2, they scored a run in the 6th and 7th and three in the 8th to win 7-5. Bartolo Colon returned, and it looks like Fat Bart didn't do too bad; he gave up five runs, but only two were earned, over six innings. Three-hit nights for Jason Bay and Dustin MVPedroia.