Clear sailing?

I went to sleep last night resigned that the morning would bring thunderstorms that would keep me inside. But when I woke, the skies were clear and I pedaled through the pines. I saw some alpacas.

I also thought the skies had cleared for our hopes of a SoxandPhils World Series.

The Red Sox are back, notes Nick Cafardo:

After last night's 8-2 win over the Orioles, just think about where this team has come from to pull within 3 1/2 games of the Rays, tied with the Blue Jays for third place with a 33-24 record. Now, the Rays aren't world-beaters; in fact, they have lost two straight to Texas. The Yankees were on a roll, but Toronto has silenced them. The Sox, meanwhile, have taken advantage of playing the worst team in baseball and won the first two games here.

The Sox were 8 1/2 out on May 23, when they actually had begun to pick up their game to go three games over .500. At that time, the Rays were playing lights out at 30-11. But the Sox kept steadily rising, while the Rays kept steadily declining. The Sox went through a key stretch in which they played Detroit, New York, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and Tampa Bay, and came out of it 9-4. That proved to the Sox that they belonged in the conversation as a wild-card team, and maybe more.

And while the Phillies are still shaking off the cobwebs from their offensive dead period, they showed signs of life in Saturday's win.

But then something happened. Each team had a game to play on Sunday. Each lost in extra innings.

The goat for the Phillies was Placido Polanco, who made a stupid decision trying to go to third on a one-out hit in the 10th. If he held at second, there's a good chance he would have scored because Ryan Howard followed with a hit. But there was no more scoring as the Padres beat the Phillies 6-5 in 10.

Still, the Phightins scored at least five runs for the second consecutive game. That hasn't happened since May 20-21. The Phillies took a moral victory:

"Baby steps," first baseman Ryan Howard said.
[...]
"Better than nothing," Polanco said.

But no one will say the Phillies have snapped out of this funk - especially when the middle of the order continues to struggle. Utley was 1 for 5, dropping his batting average to .265. Howard was 2 for 6 with three RBIs but struck out three times. Werth was 0 for 5. Raul Ibanez, now hitting .229, was 0 for 4.

"But we're still getting some good hits," Schneider said. "We worked the counts real well. We got Correia out of there early. We're not just swinging early and giving up.

"Hopefully it's the start of something good again."

I thought the Red Sox were coasting to a sweep when they scored two in the 2nd today, but John Lackey gave them right back and the game stayed tied until Manny Delcarmen had his second poor outing in a row, giving up a run in the 8th. The Red Sox tied it in the 9th, before Hideki Okajima lost in the 11th.

At least they're fighting.

I still believe both teams are past their worst stretches.

The Flyers, on the other hand: Chicago 4, Philadelphia 2 in the 2nd period of Game 5 of the finals.