PHILLIES NEWS

Unfortunately for the Phils things are not always what they seem. Through the first 6 innings of tonight's game everything was going the Phillies way. They Led 3-0 on 2 out 3 run 500 ft homer by Ryan Howard in the 5th inning. As it happened it was his 100th career homer, making him with with only 135 games under his belt the fastest player to reach 100 career homers in major league history, beating by a whopping 50 games, the previous record ,held by Pirates hall of famer Ralph Kiner, of 185 games. Meanwhile, Jamie Moyer seemed set to make his own history, taking a no-hitter all the way to 2 outs in the 6th inning, and although he allowed 2 hits at that point he still managed to get out of the inning without allowing a run. So the Phils were just rolling towards another easy win right? wrong. In the 7th inning an obviously tired Moyer wound up allowing 3 runs before Charlie finally pulled him from the game with only 3 runs allowed on 3 hits while striking out 8. The Phils bullpen, specifically Geoff Geary, could give neither the Phils nor Moyer any relief, as they allowed 3 more runs before finally getting out of the inning, and just like that Moyer had gone from 5 and 2/3rds innings of no-hit ball to a no-decision and the Phils had gone from a sure win, to oh shit! what happened. Fortunately, the Reds being the worst team in the league, gave all of their 3 run lead right back to the Phils as Greg Dobbs singled in a run and scored on a passed ball, and Aaron Rowand singled in another run to tie it at 6. The Reds came right back in the 8th to take a 7-6 lead on a pinch double by Javier Valentin. The Phils nearly tied it again in the bottom of the 8th as Greg Dobbs hit a 2 out triple, but alas ,following a Chase Utley walk, Ryan Howard struck out to end the inning. Then in the 9th the rains came, but since it was the 9th they played on, as they say when it rains it pours. With 2 out and Ken Griffey on first due to a Ryan Howard error, Adam Dunn crushed his 22nd homer of the year to put the Reds up for good 9-6. The Phils went down in order in the 9th to take the loss and our now just 40-37, 3.5 games behind the first place Mets, but still in second place, although now tied with Atlanta. Thus, life sucks again.