PHILLIES NEWS

Tonight's game was truly one for the record books, and unfortunately for the Phils it was also one to forget. The Phils trailed 2-0 early but, behind good pitching, and a double by Pat Burrell, a triple by David Dellucci, and a homer by Ryan Howard(yes that's right number 49 baby, the record breaker, and unfortunately by the end of night it was forgotten), they scored 4 unanswered runs and took a 4-2 lead. Speaking of the good pitching, it included 5 solid innings from Randy Wolf, who allowed just those 2 runs on 5 hits, and 2 innings from reliever Ryan Madson, who thanks to some nifty defense, kept the Nats scoreless in the 6th and 7th innings. Geoff Geary kept the good times rolling, with a scoreless 8th but sadly Arthur Rhodes wasn't so lucky. Attempting to protect the Phils 4-2 lead in the bottom of the 9th, he was roughed up for 2 runs on 3 hits, and allowed the Nats to push the game into extra innings with the score at 4-4. The Phils did take a 5-4 lead in the top of the 10th, as Abraham Nunez scored on a passed ball, but like Rhodes, Aaron Fultz wasn't too lucky either. He came in to close it out for the Phils in the bottom of the 10th and did anything but. I won't burden you with all of the forgettable details. I'll just say that when Fultz' day was done, the Nats had not only tied the game, but they had come all the way back to win 6-5 and obviously since the Nats were the home team, that was all she wrote. Not to throw dirt on an open wound, but as for the Wild Card situation, the Phils are now 1 game behind the Padres, who were idle today. It pains me to say this, but it's true that if the Phils had won today they would have moved into a tie for the lead in the Wild Card along with Padres. I know, this was all a bit disheartening, but it's just a part of the healing process, you have to go through after every Phillies loss, or not. Well, happy trails everyone.