PHILLIES NEWS

For those of you out there who like pitching, tonight was your kind of night. For 8 innings the Phillies' Brett Myers and the Cubs Angel Guzman and relievers David Aardsma and Will Ohman were locked in a pitcher's duel. Myers pitched 8 innings while Guzman pitched only 6 innings, but both gave up just 1 run on 4 hits. Now there is obviously not much offense to talk tonight, but I'll give it a try anyway. Initially, the Phillies led 1-0 through 7 and 1/2 innings on a solo homer by Ryan Howard (that's 44 now) . The Cubs tied it at 1 in the bottom of the 8th inning on a solo homer by Matt Murton. Then in the top of the 9th with Cubs threatening to send the night into potentially dangerous extra innings, the phils came up with some big hits to regain the lead. After the 1st 2 batters of the inning were retired, Abraham Nunez worked a walk. Then Joe Thurston ,in his 1st at bat as a phillie, blooped a single to right field, moving Nunez up to 2nd base. Jimmy Rollins then delivered an RBI double scoring Nunez, and ending the inning as Thurston was thrown out trying to score, though it should be noted that it wasn't his falt as he was waved around by third base coach Bill Dancy. Anyway, when all was said done the Phils were back ahead 2-1, and that's how it ended as Arthur Rhodes and Geoff Geary combined to put the cubs down in order in the bottom of the 9th. Now this win is a pretty big one for the Phils for a couple reasons. First, Brett Myers had been struggling this month, so it was huge for him to get back on track with a night like this. Second the Reds finally lost earlier today so the Phils have now moved to within 1.5 games of the wild card. So if you weren't excited about the Phils yet, you should be now. Well, happy trails everyone