Paul Hagen: Phillies have playoff pieces in place

As of yesterday, Phillies ace Roy Halladay led all National Leaguers with a 6.3 followed by Tim Hudson (6.2), Adam Wainwright (6.0), Adrian Gonzalez (5.9) and Josh Johnson (5.8). Interesting, while four of the top five in the NL are pitchers, position players dominate the AL list: Robinson Cano (6.4), Miguel Cabrera (6.3), Evan Longoria (6.3), Josh Hamilton (6.0) and Sin-Soo Choo (5.4).

* Small ball: Writing on baseball-reference.com, Steve Lombardi notes there have already been 24 no-hitters or one-hitters this season. That's the most since there were 26 such games in 1988.

And no team has been involved in more of those games than the Phillies. There was Roy Halladay's perfect game against the Marlins on May 29, of course. They also held the Cardinals to a lone hit in 11 innings on July 22. And they have lost three times while being held to one hit: May 22 at Red Sox, Aug. 13 at Mets and Aug. 30 at Dodgers.

The only other team involved in five such games is the Tampa Bay Rays.

* Numerology: Phillies broadcaster Gary (Sarge) Matthews played with five different teams during his 16-year major league career but wore only two numbers: No. 34 with the Phillies from 1981-83 and No. 36 with the Giants, Braves, Cubs and Mariners.

His son, Gary Matthews Jr., has played for seven major league clubs and has worn nine numbers: 21, 51, 22, 25, 36, 13, 14, 24 and 19 twice.

* Add Matthews: Why didn't Sarge wear No. 36 with the Phillies? Because it was officially retired in honor of Robin Roberts in 1962, even though he was still an active player at the time and pitched until 1966.