PHILLIES NEWS

Over the last few years the Phillies arch nemesis has been the Houston Astros. In fact, coming into today's game the Phils had lost their last 12 against the Astros, but tonight all that changed. Pitching against his idol, Roger Clemens, Cole Hamels tossed 8 solid innings, giving up just 2 runs on 2 hits(both solo homers). Meanwhile, the Phils offense could do no better against Clemens, scoring just 1 run on 1 hit, before he left following the 5th inning. Ryan Howard then added a 2nd run, with a solo homer off reliever Russ Springer. Actually, the Phils led at that point, 2-1, but Aubrey Huff led off the top of 8th inning with a solo homer of his own to tie it a 2. After that, though, neither team could get on the board as the 9th inning went by and the game ventured into extra innings. Just like game 2 last night, the extra innings wouldn't last very long. With 2 out in the bottom of the 10th inning and nobody on, Chase Utley stepped up to the plate and delivered. Lately, Utley has been slumping a bit, but in this one instant he rebounded in a big way, as he crushed a homer off Astros reliever Dave Borkowski to lift the Phils to a 3-2 win. Thus, for 1 game at least the Phils were able to get a measure of revenge against their nemesis. Anyway, with the win, the Phils remain 1.5 games behind the Padres in the wild card race(the padres won today too). Well, happy trails everyone.