Ninety minutes before the game, Phillies publicity director John Brazer had gone to the clubhouse on a mission, according to the Philadelphia Daily News. His mother Elena, a devout Catholic, had given him a bottle of Holy Water from Lourdes. She told him to sprinkle some of it on a few Phillies.

He felt strange about it. But hey, Philly hasn’t been in the playoffs in a decade. So he went around asking some of the players if he could sprinkle them with holy water. Most of the players respectfully refused. The water went on Aaron Rowand, Pat Burrell and Shane Victorino.

The Phillies bats were cold all game until Rowand led off the fifth with a home run. Burrell followed with a homer that needed Citizens Bank Park divine intervention as it cleared the fence behind shortstop by inches. But Victorino soon after grounded out to second. But hey, two out of three is a good Slugging percentage even for Our Lady of Lourdes.

Brazer said his mother probably didn’t even know as of this morning who he’d sprinkled with holy water. In a Philadelphia morning radio show he said his mother was at church in the morning but he was going back to meet her after church to get more. He predicted that many more Phillies players would be asking for holy water today.