Phillies Nation

Back to actual baseball — the Phillies will attempt a sweep of the Nationals tonight..

Ultimate Weapon?: Our Vic — Shane Victorino — just ended a sweet July. He went .327 with 7 HR and 17 RBI during the month.

Wash Them Win: After starting 1-3 against the Nationals, the Phils ahave won four straight against them.

Back At The Top: The Phillies will attempt to hold onto first place tonight.

Phillies: Kyle Kendrick (8-5) 4.70 ERA
Nationals: John Lannan (6-10) 3.33 ERA

Gametime: 7:10 p.m. EST
Weather: 83, cloudy
Lineup:

MLB TV
MLB Gameday Audio
MLB Gameday

Your gamenight beer: So the Phillies didn’t make a deal. Well, I’ll have more about this later. But for now, enjoy a Fuller’s London Pride, an English pale ale. Sure, maybe we don’t have the prospects or the money necessary to do explosive things at the deadline, but we have our beer, and that’s what counts, right? For dinner, have some red curry chicken and basatmi rice.

Go Phillies!

Buster Olney has written the obituary on this deadline for the Phillies. He says they look to be sitting out of the left-handed reliever sweepstakes.

It’s more likely a LOOGY will come after waivers.

Two hours to go before the non-waiver trade deadline, and nothing yet.

In other news, Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports is echoing many allegations that the Manny Ramirez-to-Florida deal is dead.

Will the Phillies do anything at all before 4 p.m.?

In fact, just looking at the whole day so far, there has barely been a peep about or from the Phillies. It’s as if the Phils are silently concocting some mad plan. Maybe not, but it’s eerie how quiet it’s been over here, while at least there’s been word the Mets, Angels and A’s aren’t dealing at all.

Trades made today:

• Rays trade two prospects for OF Jason Bay
• Marlins trade prospect for RP Arthur Rhodes
• White Sox trade for OF Ken Griffey Jr.

The Marlins acquired Arthur Rhodes today from the Mariners for pitching prospect Gabby Hernandez.

Rhodes has a 2.86 ERA this season, missing last year to Tommy John. He pitched for the Phillies in 2006 and had an ERA over 5.00.

That puts the Phillies watch list down one man in the left-handed reliever category, and I’m not losing sleep over this one.

The Major League Baseball Non-Waiver Trade Deadline (all rights reserved) is about seven hours away.

I’ll turn it over to all of you — what would you like to see the Phillies do today, if anything at all?

Spin a deal for a left-handed reliever? And who? Jump all in and go after Manny Ramirez? Make one last push for Matt Holliday? Grab another starter? Maybe something different?

Go nuts. Be the GM.

They opened the cabinet, pulled out the Dimetapp and ingested hard. They found the cure for Tim Redding.

The Phillies went down early, but broke out with a five-run fifth inning en route to an 8-5 win. In that fifth, Jimmy Rollins knocked an RBI double, Shane Victorino brought home two with a single, and Chase Utley brought he and Vic around with his 28th home run of the season. Victorino also hit a homer — his ninth, an insurance shot in the seventh.

Pat Burrell added a bases-loaded single in the first inning, getting the Phils on the board.

They didn’t hold on at first, as Jamie Moyer ran into early trouble and went down 3-2. But he was solid after, striking out five on 94 pitches. He left after six innings and looked comfortably ahead once the Nats came back to bat. Ryan Madson gave up two quick runs — which he’s been doing a lot of lately. Jayson Werth didn’t help at all, stumbling before catching what became a ground-rule double. He was brought in for Burrell on a defensive replacement move. Seriously, can Charlie Manuel stop this replacement garbage on Burrell?

Once all that ended, Chad Durbin finished off the Nats in the eighth and Brad Lidge netted his 26th save of 26 chances.

With the win (and a Mets loss) the Phillies are back in first place, 0.5 games ahead of the New Yorkers. Another positive note: both Geoff Jenkins and Carlos Ruiz had two hits in the game; Ruiz has raised his average from .202 to .217 since July 13.

Associated Press photo

It’s been reported multiple times already, but I’ll bring it here: The Marlins are dangerously close to acquiring Manny Ramirez.

The deal would send Jeremy Hermida, two Marlins prospects and a Red Sox prospect to the Pirates. The Buccos would then send Jason Bay and John Grabow to the Red Sox. The Sox would send Ramirez, cash and a prospect to the Fish.

Potentially the Marlins lineup would feature Hanley Ramirez at the top, Manny Ramirez cleanup and Dan Uggla and Mike Jacobs on the both sides of him. Throw in Jorge Cantu and Josh Willingham and you got a very strong order capable of beating a lot of teams. Yes, Virginia, the Marlins are for real, they ain’t going away and they know it.

For the Fish it’s a pretty good move, but I really like what the Sox are getting from this — they’ll get Grabow to help their already good bullpen, plus Bay, one of the game’s best outfielders. Considering they’d be getting that for Manny (and two prospects), they’re making out. Still, the Phils will be fighting with the Fish until the end, and it’ll be tough with Manny leading these guys night in and out. He’s a good fit for that club.

The Phillies continue their three-gamer in Washington, D.C. with a match against Tim Redding and the Nats.

Seeing Redd: Tim Redding is the No. 1 Phillie Killer, the B.A. Baracus of the team of guys who openly throttle us on a regular basis. He has pitched 13.1 shutout innings against the Phils this season, giving up eight hits while walking five. If the Phils decide to take pitches …

Iron Ryan: Ryan Howard has a consecutive game streak of 221 games, longest in baseball.

Flawless Final: After last night’s win, the Phillies are 46-0 when leading after eight innings.

Phillies: Jamie Moyer (9-6) 3.76 ERA
Nationals: Tim Redding (7-5) 3.98 ERA

Gametime: 7:10 p.m. EST
Weather: 88, cloudy
Lineup: Rollins/Victorino/Utley/Howard/Burrell/Jenkins/Bruntlett/Ruiz/Moyer

MLB TV
MLB Gameday Audio
MLB Gameday

Your gamenight beer: Affligem Blond is a Belgian beer, really my favorite nation for beer. It’s yellow/gold, very light and has somewhat of a banana lace smell. Can’t beat that combination. When facing a guy who has baffled you all season, you need to rethink strategy, take your time, focus on every little pitch. That makes Affligem Blond a nice beer for tonight. For a food pairing, I’d go with clams.

Go Phillies!

Yesterday Charlie Manuel started Greg Dobbs at third base in place of the injured Pedro Feliz, and he went 0-for-3. Moreover, he remains a liability defensively at the hot corner.

Quickly checking out some numbers, I found it’s much more beneficial for the Phils to keeps Dobbs a bench player. He likes that role, he thrives in that role, and Eric Bruntlett isn’t a bad option to start.

Bruntlett as starter (142 PA): .242 AVG/.312 OBP/.352 SLG/2 HR/12 RBI
Bruntlett as substitute (33 PA): .222 AVG/.364 OBP/.222 SLG/0 HR/0 RBI

Dobbs as starter (81 PA): .237 AVG/.284 OBP/.316 SLG/1 HR/7 RBI
Dobbs as substitute (62 PA): .397 AVG/.419 OBP/.586 SLG/2 HR/7 RBI

As it shows, Bruntlett seems to be a better starter than a sub, while Dobbs is much more successful off the bench. Start Dobbs, and you automatically lose a bench bat, whereas if you start Bruntlett, Dobbs remains the weapon he needs to be. For Manuel, it makes sense to plug Bruntlett into the lineup everyday.

PETA named Citizens Bank Park its top vegetarian-friendly ballpark of 2008 (thanks, Sports Complex).

If I remember correctly, the Bank was No.1 last year, as well. And last year it won a Food Network award for Best Ballpark Eats.

So take a moment from all this trade talk and appreciate that Citizens Bank Park is an awesome dining experience.