Aug. 6 -- FINALLY, SOMETHING BREWING

MILWAUKEE -- Greetings from the boarding gate for US Airways Flight 3702. In a little while, I'll be heading home, but before we leave behind the city of beer and brats and the setting for this old sitcom, there's the matter of what happened yesterday at Miller Park.

For eight innings, I was writing about Adam Eaton's struggles (more on those later) and a road trip gone awry. But then, the Phillies scored five runs in the ninth inning against lights-out closer Francisco Cordero and won in the 11th on Wes Helms' two-run double. Less than 24 hours after their most demoralizing defeat of the season, the Phillies had their most improbable victory.

Go figure.

A few things that made yesterday's win so unbelievable:
-Cordero was 23-for-23 in save opportunities at home. His ERA at Miller Park: 0.30.
-The Phillies were 1-45 when trailing after eight innings.
-The Phillies had lost seven straight games to the Brewers in Milwaukee, including five straight by one run.
-Aaron Rowand was in a 2-for-25 funk and down to his last strike in the ninth inning when he hit the ball that Brewers third baseman Ryan Braun couldn't glove, allowing the tying runs to score.
-Braun and Craig Counsell hammered Jose Mesa in the 11th. But Rowand made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Braun of extra bases, and Counsell scorched a liner right at Tadahito Iguchi. "Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good," Mesa said.

But that wasn't even the quote of the day. Asked if yesterday's outcome was "poetic justice" after Saturday night when the Phillies blew a four-run lead with ace Cole Hamels on the mound and Corey Hart robbed Iguchi of a homer, Brewers manager Ned Yost said, "I don't really like poetry."

*
Eaton, whose 6.09 ERA is worst in the National League, sounds utterly lost. For $24.5 million, the Phillies expected more from Eaton. At the very least, they're expecting him to correct his problems. Also within this notebook, Wes Helms tells Brewers fans how he really feels about them.

*
What's your preferred seventh-inning stretch tradition? In Chicago, celebrities sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame," a la Harry Caray. In Milwaukee, sausages race around the field. I prefer the celebs, but that's just me.