PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils got a big win against the Marlins last night and just kept it going tonight. The Marlins actually led early 1-0 after an RBI triple by Miguel Olivo and for a while it looked like that 1 run might hold up. Both starters, Ben Olsen for the Marlins, and Jamie Moyer for the Phils, were just dealing through 5 and 1/2 innings as the Marlins maintained their 1-0 the lead, but in the end Moyer simply outlasted Olsen, with a little help from Ryan Howard. Moyer tossed 8 solid innings, allowing just that 1 run on 5 hits, and Howard homered twice(that's 56 now), 1st in the top of the 6th(a 2 run homer) to give the Phils their 1st lead at 2-1, and again in the 8th inning(a solo shot) to put the Phils ahead for good 3-1. Tom Gordon(yes he's back now, in fact he pitched briefly last night too) then came in and closed it out in the 9th, but not before allowing 1 more run as the Phils held on for a 3-2 win. All in all, this was a nice win for the Phils and a big one at that. With the win the Phils move to within 1.5 games of the wild card leading Padres who lost tonight. Anyway, before I finish this for the night I just want to talk about Ryan Howard for a minute. I mean, it's great that the Phils won tonight, but let's be honest the real reason you've been watching the Phillies lately is to see Howard do his thing. I mean come on, can the guy get any hotter. It doesn't seem to matter where you pitch to him, he still hits it out. With the 2 homers tonight he now has 56 homers, as I mentioned earlier, 138 RBIs and he's currently batting .311. All I can say is, I hope he can keep this up for the rest of the season, and not just because what he is doing right is just extraordinary, but because it's just fun to watch him go out there every night. Well, happy trails everyone.