Painful night

The 76ers pre-empted the Phillies again, so we watched the Phillies-Nationals game on the radio. Things were going well until the 5th inning when Joel Lannan bunted one back to Cole Hamels who twisted his ankle.

He left the game with a sprain. What's the over/under on five wins for the playoff MVP?

He was pitching pretty well, too: no runs, four hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings. He lowered his ERA to 7.27. I keep thinking of Josh Beckett's struggles in 2008 after he pretty much single-handedly pitched the Red Sox to a championship in 2007.

The Phillies - riding a five-game winning streak - were tied for first for a few minutes until the Marlins finished off the Mets.

Red Sox: Brad Penny coughed up a 7-3 lead against the Indians in the third inning, hence the "painful night." It was tied at 7 when I started writing, but the red-hot Red Sox scored another in the 7th to reclaim the lead. If it holds, that would be 12 straight - their longest streak since June 2006 when they swept series against the Braves, Phillies, Nationals and Mets. I was convinced they were romping toward another World Series, but they wound up missing the playoffs.