PHILLIES NEWS

When a collision, like last night's occurs it's effects can be lingering. One of those effects is obviously roster changes which we'll talk about later, but another effect can be a let down in the game following the collision. Tonight however, the Phillies were able to put it behind them and take care of business. In his 1st start as a Phillie Jamie Moyer pitched 6 solid innings, giving up just 3 runs on 6 hits. Now if Moyer was still with the Mariners, his aforementioned stats probably would not have been enough to get the win, but the with potent Phillies offense by his side they were. Shane Victorino, Jimmy Rollins, David Dellucci, and Ryan Howard all knocked in 1 run a piece, and the suddenly hot Pat Burrell knocked in 2 runs. Add it all up and you've got 6 runs on the board and a 6-3 win the for the Phils. Its was as simple as that tonight, although I should mention that the bullpen had another strong night, pitching 3 scoreless innings to finish the game. Anyway like I said at the beginning the Phillies made some roster changes today. 1st of all it was announced today that Aaron Rowand had in fact fractured his ankle rather than spraining it as was originally thought. Thus, he will be out for the remainder of the regular season, but should the Phillies make the playoffs he would available. Obviously with no Rowand, Shane Victorino will start in center field for the rest of the season. Now, with Victorino starting the Phillies found themselves short of extra men on the bench, and so today they added some players to their roster. First they acquired veteran infielder/outfielder Jose Hernandez from the Pirates for cash to fill the void left by Rowand. Then since Chase Utley sat out tonight's game just as a precaution because his ankle felt a little sore, they recalled infielder Joe Thurston from AAA Scranton-Wilkes Barre. Now I don't know much about Thurston, but I know Hernandez is one those guys who can play anywhere in the field , and do it well, so I think the Phils will be okay without Rowand. Anyway, the Phillies who at 63 -62 are at .500 for the 1st time since May, remain 2.5 games back in the wild card race. Well happy trails everyone.