PHIL guides suddenly fortunate Big Hebs to surprising sweep

As a perpetual doormat for Chad's teams, he and I have often joked of HAL's disdain for me when our teams meet. Whenever a rare dose of positive fate falls upon my team, we jest that the more Detter-friendly PHIL has momentarily wrested away the controls of the master Strat board in Glen Head, NY. If this is true, a steroid-laced PHIL made a surprise appearance at Strat headquarters tonight and kicked sand in the face of his more dominant counterpart, guiding the Big Hebs (Detter West) to a shocking sweep of the homestanding Hawaiian Organ Donors (Chad West). The Big Hebs were forced to come from behind in every game, and in doing so, pulled into a two-way tie with the Donors for first place in the AL East. Now for the quick report:

GAME 1: HEBS: 2 DONORS: 1
WP: Jer. Weaver (4-2)
LP: M. Buehrle (1-5)
Sv: J. Benoit (2)

Jack Hanahan remained red-hot by blasting a solo homer in the fifth inning to tie the game at 1-1, but the decisive blow in this one was delivered by Orlando Cabrera's two-out RBI single a few batters later. Jered Weaver, again not exactly treated to a cornucopia of runs, earned his fourth win of the season, going 7.1 strong. Joaquin Benoit twirled the final 1.2 in shutout fashion to pick up his second save. Chad missed two HR 1-5 or out rolls in the game's final innings that would have made the game much different.

GAME 2: HEBS: 6 DONORS: 3
WP: B. Bannister (6-3)
LP: J. Gobble (1-1)

Four Big Heb long balls accounted for all six of their runs in a game in which they erased an early 3-0 deficit. Starter Brian Bannister permitted three runs in as many innings to start the game, but settled in and enjoyed the onslaught en route to his team-best sixth victory. Vladimir Guerrero erased the entire deficit in the fourth with the first of his two homers in the game, this one a three-run shot off of Donors starter, Kelvim Escobar. The game remained knotted into the eighth when southpaw reliever Jimmy Gobble was called on to face Jim Thome, who promptly led off the Big Heb half of the frame with a clean homer. Guerrero followed with his second shot of the game, and later that same inning, Jared Saltalamacchia dialed long distance as well. Bannister went the distance, allowing just three hits along the way.

GAME 3: HEBS: 3 DONORS: 2
WP: D. Oliver (2-1)
LP: P. Neshek (3-1)
Sv: J. Speier (5)

In a series that saw all the breaks go the route of the Hebs, this was the cheapest win of them all. With two outs in the top of the ninth of a tie-game, the Hebs scored the tie-breaking run on back-to-back LF-X plays gone awry. The first of which, an error on Mark Teahen, put Mark Ellis on second base, leading to the second, yet another game-winner for Vladimir Guerrero. Darren Oliver's 2.2 innings of scoreless work earned him the win, while Justin Speier retired the game's final batter with two on and two out for his fifth save.