PHILLIES NEWS

Its, not often that 1 hit in the very 1st inniing of a game, proves to be the difference between winning and losing, but that's exactly what happened to the Phils tonight. Lately, the Phillies have been struggling to knock in runs with 2 outs, but with 1 swing Pat Burrell changed all that. With the bases loaded and 2 outs, Burrell managed to work the count full against Astros starter Roger Clemens, and subsequently delivered his 1st ever hit off Clemens, a grand slam no less, to give the Phils an early 4-0 lead. Incredibly, as it turned out those 4 runs would be all the Phils would need. Brett Myers pitched 7 solid innings, allowing just 3 runs on 5 hits, with all 3 runs coming in the 4th inning via homers by Luke Scott and Morgan Ensberg of the Astros. However, following that 3-run 4th inning, the Astros would not score again for the rest of the night, as Myers and relievers Geoff Geary, Matt Smith, , and closer Flash Gordon, combined to keep the Astros scoreless for the final 5 innings and to preserve a key 4-3 victory for the Phils. Now obviously with the close score and all, this was a very exciting game, but it didn't have to be, as the Phils had several chances to really run up the score against Astros, and put the game away early but they were unable to do it. Bascially, the Phils didn't play as good as they could have, and are probably lucky to have won this game, but any rate a win is a win, so I am stiil happy. Before I go, let me just update the wild card situation a bit. You already know that the Phils won, but what happened to the Padres? well, they lost so the Phils are now back to within 1.5 games of them for the lead in the wild card race, which as I said before is not a bad place to be in. Well, happy trails everyone.