My bad

Cole Hamels, I apologize for jinxing it and saying that you would get your 10th win today. If that ball didn't slam your hand, I think you would have pitched strong and maybe the Phillies would have eked out a few runs to win the game. I won't make any predictions before your next start.

Red Sox 5, Phillies 2. Thanks David Herndon and nonexistent offense. Both better pick up the slack before the October meeting.

We don't need Oswalt, Contreras and Madson

The Red Sox-Phillies series has been billed as a World Series preview. Hitting vs. pitching.

That's not the way it's working out.

Last night, Cliff Lee dominantly shut down the Sox. Tonight, it was Vance Worley, Michael Stutes and Antonio Bastardo. Wait - what?

Yes, the trio of young Phillies pitchers shut down the Sox 2-1. I thought the Phillies would have had an offensive explosion against John Lackey, but the only offense came courtesy of Raul Ibanez.

And I don't want to hear any excuses about Carl Crawford being hurt or not having a DH. The Phillies have had their fair share of position players hurt this year. And oh yeah, if not for Lackey tonight, the Red Sox still wouldn't have a run.

Tomorrow afternoon is Jon Lester vs. Cole Hamels. Yet another good matchup. But I doubt David Ortiz will start, and the rest of the Sox lineup is a bit lacking right now. I'm sure it will blow up in my face, but I'm feeling good about Cole getting his 10th win of the year.

Wardrobe: When I was picking out Trent's clothes for tomorrow, I refrained from going with Phillies gear. Though he might have to go with celebratory red-white-and-blue on Friday - for the 4th of July, of course, not because he has an adorable red Phillies jersey with matching blue shorts.

Phillies strike first

This morning, purely coincidentally, I pulled Trent's SoxandPhils bib out of the drawer. It says, "I'm not torn, I root for the SoxandPhils."

I thought it was appropriate.

He didn't see much of tonight's game, a 5-0 Phillies win. Josh Beckett was a little bit rusty coming off his stomach bug, five runs in six innings, while Cliff Lee was as smooth as he's been all month, a shutout with just two hits, two walks and five strikeouts. That's three straight shutouts, and his scoreless streak is at 32 innings. Watch out Orel Hershisher.

Game 1 goes to the Phils. I'm just glad I was home for it. I doubt I will be tomorrow.

A test of Trent's loyalties

Last week, we thought that Father's Day would be our last regularly occurring "first" with Trent. But I guess we forgot that he wasn't around for last year's SoxandPhils interleague games, so it will be interesting to see how he handles this week.

He'll probably follow his father's tact and be diplomatic and gracious toward his mother.

My only thought is that the Red Sox might sweep if only because they are coming off of two series losses against woeful teams - the Padres and the Pirates. It's an unbelievably crazy week at work for me, so I don't know how much of the series I'll get to see.

I'm more bummed about missing time with Trent and Christine.

Mixing colors

Today, Trent and Christine gave me a nice first Father's Day. Last week, we had Father's Day at Citizen's Bank Park, and I got a white-on-white (I know it looks pink in the picture) Phillies hat. I don't like wearing non-Red Sox garb. I support the Phillies, but they're not my team, and I don't think I should wear their stuff.

But at the park last week, I made a rare exception and mixed up my teams - Red Sox shirt with Phillies hat. I think it's wrong to wear garb from two teams at the same time, and if I saw myself, I'd probably poke fun on my game day recap.

Obviously, it was perfectly acceptable and doggone cute last week for a 1-year-old SoxandPhils fan to mix his colors!

Trent mixed his colors again today. He wore his Red Sox shirt for me, but Christine covered it with a Phillies bib when they went to get me a Father's Day treat.

Incidentally, Trent had a few milestones this weekend - most notably learning how to climb our staircase. Scary.

More impressive is the time when we were hitting a large rubber ball with his baseball bat. It rolled away from him, but he reached out and knocked it to the opposite field. The kid's going to be a right-handed Wade Boggs.

Incredible game

We've been back from the ballpark for more than four hours, and I still can't believe it.

Except for the 2008 World Series clincher and the 2007 division clincher, this might have been the most amazing game we've ever seen in person.

Despite incredible odds and a feeling of doom all day, the impossible happened - it was supposed to rain when we were at a game and it didn't!

Oh, and the Phillies came to life in the 7th inning to win a game in which they were held in check by the mediocre Doug Davis. Phillies 4, Cubs 3.

The first inning was tortuous, but Roy Oswalt shut down the Cubs for six more innings after giving up three in the first. The Phillies chipped away with a run in the 1st and 3rd, but left eight men on in the first six innings. They finally broke through with two runs in the 7th on a base hit by Ryan Howard. He had a deep double in the 1st that almost went out. (He has a tendency to come through for Trent when his parents have tickets.)

Observations from the stands: The little guy stayed home today even though it was early Father's Day at the park. Pete Schneider got to hang with his son before the game. ... They handed out a white-on-white Phillies hat, better than the hat-on-a-hat they gave away a few years ago. ... The sax player outside the ballpark has gone Hollywood. He had a stool and an amplifier. I liked acoustic stand-up guy better.

The Overbrook High School Overtones sang the National Anthem. I don't remember it. Marc Antonelli sang God Bless America. At first I thought it was long, but then I decided it was good. Everyone loved it.

There was a very special birthday on the screen today. Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz. He's 60. ... This guy in front of us is a huge Nationals fan. He had the shirt, lanyard, cap and even a backpack. ... There was a baby in front of us. Not as a cute as Trent, but made me miss him.

Ryan Madson needs better closing music. Don't Stop Believin' kind of puts the place to sleep. Besides, don't you want the other team to stop believing once you bring in your closer?

Antiquated shirts: Not very many. Most were spotted on the way out of the ballpark when I wasn't taking notes. Pat Burrell, Jim Thome, Lenny Dykstra and Jayson Werth.

Etc.: Everyone around us jumped for a hot dog even though the Phanatic's hot dog shooter couldn't reach us in the 400 level.

Oh well, pretty good game, but we've got a nerve-wracking night and morning ahead of us. Trent's been on the DL too many times this season with ear infections, so we're doing the tube thing tomorrow, but we're sure he'll be hotter than the Red Sox by the time our teams resume play on Tuesday.