Aug. 14 -- SPELLING RELIEF?

WASHINGTON -- Lovely day here in our nation's capital. When I was a kid, I used to come here a lot on summer vacation with my family, and even now, I never get tired of walking from monument to monument on the National Mall. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to do that this week.

I'll really enjoy this trip next season after the Nats move into their new stadium. RFK was not meant for baseball. The visiting clubhouse has to be the smallest in the majors, and if you sit in the second or third row of the press box (the area reserved for visiting media), you can't see part of the field. When the Phillies and Nats play their final series here in September, I won't shed any tears.

OK, now about that Phillies bullpen. Last week, while we were all preoccupied with Brett Myers' entry music (he has settled on the very appropriate "Lights Out" by P.O.D., by the way), the Phillies' relievers have put together a nice streak. In their last nine games, they have posted a 1.67 ERA.

And success has come from some unlikely places.

Only the Phils and Marlins were interested in free-agent Antonio Alfonseca last winter. Alfonseca has a 3.86 ERA since mid-June. The Tigers waived Jose Mesa, and the Red Sox cut bait with J.C. Romero earlier this season. Mesa hasn't allowed an earned run in 11 innings since the All-Star break, and Romero has given up runs in only two of his 21 Phillies appearances. And Clay Condrey has been shuttled between Philly and Ottawa so often that he joked he has enough frequent-flier miles to go to the moon. But he has a 1.10 ERA in his last 10 appearances.

So, which of them has been the biggest surprise for you?











*
Sad news today about Phil Rizzuto. I grew up watching his broadcasts on WPIX, and in many ways, I learned a lot of the things I know about baseball from him. I'll never forget how he used to leave Yankees games early to beat the traffic on the George Washington Bridge. Classic stuff.