Phillies 5, Brewers 2

PHILADELPHIA -- We're good luck for the home team so far. At our first game last night, at Citizens Bank Park, Phillies third baseman David Bell hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to stretch the team's winning streak to four games. Milwaukee had jumped to a 1-0 lead early, when Jeff Cirillo hit a home run to left off Brett Myers in the top of the first. Down 2-0 in the fourth, the Phillies got a two-run blast from Jim Thome to tie the game.

The first half of the game was a Jekyll & Hyde experience. Myers works in a satisfying, quick rhythm: pitch, get it back, toe the rubber, pitch. Brewers' starter Victor Santos pitches in a rhythm that suggests he's going to be executed promptly at game's end: pitch, stroll toward the catcher, kick the grass, stare at the sky, tug at pants, etc.

It stayed tied, and eventually moved briskly on both sides, until the last frame, when Milwaukee reliever Matt Wise walked Thome and then became preoccupied with his pinch-runner, Endy Chavez. Wise walked Chase Utley, and then Bell finished things off with what looked like a routine fly to left -- but the ball carried out for the win. A dramatic, well-played, and well-paced first game.

The walk back to the car, around 9:45, was accompanied by the heartening sight of the same fans who had been tail-gating and drinking at 5:30 starting a garbage-can fire over which to grill more meat. -JW