Phils Finally Find Some Pop, Avoid Sweep

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"The most important game is the game you're playing."

That's what Cliff Lee had to say about the importance of winning Wednesday afternoon's tilt against Milwaukee to prevent the Phils first sweep of the season. Charlie Manuel felt a bit stronger about it though, saying that losing on Wednesday and heading out west coming off a sweep could send a team into a tailspin of sorts.

Thanks to the pop of Placido Polanco and Shane Victorino, the Phils don't have to worry about dealing with three straight losses as Cliff Lee kept his team in today's game long enough to give them a shot, and after days of silent bats, they found enough juice to beat the Brew Crew 4-3.

Cliff Lee got hit prety hard in this one, giving up 8 hits over 6 innings and allowing 3 runs, 2 of them earned with the unearned coming off a strange play in shallow right along the line that Wilson Valdez dropped after appearing to run it down nicely.

Lee didn't have his best stuff, and struggled a bit keeping his pitches down in the zone, but he avoided two big jams and kept the Phils to within 3 runs when he exited after the sixth.

It was in the bottom half of that inning that the Phillies bats finally found some life as Placido Polanco lifted one into the seats in left, waking the up-until-that-point quiet Citizens Bank Park crowd. Polly's blast ended a streak of 17.0 scoreless innings for the Phils offense. It was their first runs since the 9th inning on Monday.

The bullpen performed very well this afternoon, with Kyle Kendrick bouncing back in a huge way, working a 1-2-3 7th inning. Manuel mentioned after the game that if anyone got on, it would have been Bastardo's job to fix.

Madson worked a scoreless eighth, which set the table for Victorino to hit the hell out of a ball in the bottom half that landed way up in the bullpen in right center. [watch Shane's HR here]

Contreras allowed a hit in the ninth, but there was redepemtion for Valdez when he made a very dificult over-the-shoulder grab for the second out. If it had dropped, it would have been two men on base with only one out and potential trouble for the Big Truck.

If nothing else, the win sends the team out west on a positive note, and quells a bit of the panic that has been going on among the fanbase the past few games. They've still got to become more consitent, but they showed today that there's not a total power outage in the Phils clubhouse.

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