IS STOCKPILING DEFENSEMEN
You will hear plenty about how every game is important the rest of season, and you will hear that because it is true.
But if every game is important, yesterday's 5-2 victory over the Cubs at Wrigley Field was really, really, really important. Because had the Phillies lost yesterday, they would have arrived at Wrigley Field this morning with the chance of being swept. And you can't get swept this late in the season. You just can't. So now the Phillies come to Wrigley this morning with a chance to split, which I considered a success before the series started.
The Phillies received some good news today (maybe) when they learned that Carlos Zambrano won't pitch today because of dead arm (it's not really dead, it's just baseball talk for his arm being tired). Sean Marshall will pitch instead.
Marshall is 3-3 with a 3.52 ERA.
In five career appearances, including two starts, against the Phillies, Marshall is 0-1 with a 13.50 ERA (13 earned runs in 8 2/3 innings). He has pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief this season against the Phillies. But he allowed five hits and six runs in 3 1/3 innings in a start against the Phillies in 2006, and nine hits and seven runs in 2 2/3 innings in a start against the Phillies last season.
*
In the Phillies Notebook: Brett Myers stays hot, a trade for Kyle Farnsworth (or anybody else) seems unlikely, Matt Stairs talks baseball and hockey and Pat Gillick and Gregg Clifton talk about the Phillies releasing Kris Benson.
*
In The Inquirer's Sunday baseball column, Jim Salisbury takes a look at the wide open MVP race in the National League. Check out Extra Bases, too.
*
Bob Brookover and Matt Gelb team up for their third straight season covering the Phillies for the Inquirer and philly.com.
This is Brookover’s second stint writing about the Phillies, having joined the coverage team after seven years as an Eagles beat writer. Brookover was hired by The Inquirer in 2000 as the Phillies beat writer after spending 13 years writing about the team for two suburban newspapers. While on the Eagles beat, Brookover, who had covered just two winning Phillies teams in 15 seasons, saw the Phillies move into a cash-cow new ballpark and begin playing a brand of the game he found unrecognizable. Follow him on Twitter here.
Gelb is in his third season covering the Phillies. He was hired by The Inquirer in August 2009 after graduating from Syracuse University. He has also covered baseball at The Star-Ledger and Cape Cod Times. Born and raised in Bucks County, he attended Central Bucks High School West. Follow him on Twitter here.
To submit a question for Matt Gelb's Phillies mailbag, click here.
 | Join on Facebook |  | Follow on Twitter |
