Movin' on Up | The surging Phillies won their fourth straight last night to move to within a game of Florida, which ran into the Roger Clemens juggernaut (did anyone envision this level of studliness from the Rocket?) and lost to the Astros. The Phils' offense continued to awaken from its April slumber, pounding out 15 hits en route to the 10-4 victory. Kevin Millwood ran his record to 4-2 with a tidy little 6.2 innings of six-hit, three-run ball. Barry Bonds was 1-for-3 with a run scored, and the Phillies had to intentionally walk him just once.

Across the Phillies blogosphere, there is much rejoicing. "This is nothing short of miraculous," enthuses A Citizen's Blog. "I thought the Phils wouldn't have a shot at catching up until June, not May." Echoes PhilliesBlog, "I couldn't be happier with this team right now."

The most cogent observation comes from I'm Not an Athlete, who accurately points to the kind of hit parade most of us envisioned from spring training: "...[I]t seems like the Phils' offense is finally clicking. They've scored at least 5 runs in 6 of their last 8 games after doing so only 10 of their first 22. They're 13-3 when they score at least 5, which isn't surprising since they've got the best team ERA in the league. When people made their predictions at the beginning of the year, this was the Phillies offense that they expected to see. I hope I'm not jinxing them here, but hopefully this is the offense we'll continue to see this season."

Randy Wolf takes the ball against Jason Schmidt tonight. Given my pathetic inability to handle weeknight West Coast games -- mid-30s + active toddler + full-time job = zzzzzzz -- I'll have to catch the result tomorrow morning.