The Phillies beat the Padres at Citizens Bank Park thanks to a few players who did nothing to hurt their trade value.
Jonathan Papelbon hadn't pitched in a while, so he figured he'd make sure you all noticed he was out there.
Papelbon recorded the 300th save of his career, A.J. Burnett pitched into the 8th inning, and Marlon Byrd had 4 RBIs as the Phillies beat the Padres 5-2 at Citizens Bank Park.
With the win, the Phils moved to within 10 games of .500 at 26-36 and sent the folks home happy on Chase Utley Bobblehead Night. Utley did his part too, going 2-for-4 with 2 runs scored an an RBI, raising his batting average to .318 on the season. Oh, those pesky 10-5 rights.
Of course, there were other, slightly more likely trade bait that played well on Tuesday night for the Phils. Burnett bounced back from a string of subpar outings with 7.1 innings of effective pitching, giving up just two runs on three hits, three strikeouts and two walks. Coming into tonight, Burnett had given up a league-leading 41 walks, so those two walks were a pretty nice change of pace, especially for a guy who is still pitching through a hernia.
Byrd broke out of a June slump with a huge opposite-field three-run home run that gave the Phils a 4-1 lead, breaking a string of 4 hits in his previous 30 plate appearances (.143/.200/.393). Byrd could be a nice target for a team looking for help in the outfield, although he will likely trigger a vesting option in his contract that would require a team to pick up his 2016 season.
And then there is Papelbon, who needed 146 pitches (OK, maybe a few less) to get out of a bases loaded, 9th inning jam, but featured a fastball that touched 93 mph, and lowered his ERA on the season to 1.48. If the Phils agreed to pick up some of his salary, it's possible a team with bullpen issues (Detroit?) might be willing to part with something of value. Maybe.
Of course, it was also nice to see the Phils play a solid game from start to finish. As they lost 9 of their last 10 coming into Tuesday night's game against San Diego, fans hadn't seen that for a while.
Winning is always nice.