PHILLIES NEWS

Could the Phillies finally be turning things around? Hey it could happen. Today's dramatic 6-5 win over the Padres gives the Phillies 2 wins in a row and renewed confidence. The Phillies started behind trailing 2-0 after 2 innings, but then the rains came and the game changed completely. In the 4th inning, following a rain delay the Phillies roared back and scored 5 runs, on a RBI double and run scored by Ryan Howard and a two run homer by Carlos Ruiz, the 1st of his career, to go ahead 5-2. The Phils bullpen took it from there, but they could not hold the lead, and by the time Tom Gordon left the mound following the top of the 9th inning he had blown a save and the game was tied at 5. Now, normally just having a tie in the 9th inning would not be cause for concern for the Phillies, but on this day they were short on pitchers, since they had used just about everybody in their bullpen considerably in getting the win on Sunday. So the Phillies really needed this game to end in the 9th and end it would. Ryan Howard led off the inning with a single. He moved up to second base, on a slow groundout by Pat Burrell. Then Aaron Rowand stepped to the plate and delivered. After falling behind in the count 0-2 Rowand worked it to 3-2 then hit a line drive base hit, that landed just fair to plate Howard with the winning run, and touch off the 4th of July celebration. Now I am a big believer in momentum, and I feel like they have a lot of it following this win. If they can just ride it until the all-star break they might just be able to get themselves back in the playoff picture and wouldn't that be sweet. Well, Happy 4th of July everybody.