PHILLIES NEWS

Tonight the Phils were without both Chase Utley ,who broke his hand yesterday, and Aaron Rowand who apparently tweaked his shoulder while playing with his kids this morning (don't worry he'll reportedly be back tomorrow). Considering that Utley and Rowand are the Phils top 2 hitters the odds were stacked against them to open their weekend series with the Pirates with a victory. Apparently the oddsmakers didn't factor in Micheal Bourn. Starting in centerfield for the injured Rowand, and batting leadoff, Bourn went on a tear, going 4 for 4 and while stealing a base and scoring 2 runs. Although, he didn't knock in any runs his continued presence on the base paths was a big reason that Pat Burrell racked up a double and a homer, and 3 RBIs, and Greg Dobbs racked up a 2 RBI single in the 1st inning, among others. In all the Phils pounded out 8 runs on 11 hits. Meanwhile, the trusty left arm of Jamie Moyer guided the Phils through 7 innings, allowing just 1 run on 6 hits, while striking out 4. Nature then intervened, sending the game into a rain delay, just as the 8th inning got under the way. As it turned out, the rain delay never ceased and the game was called, but since it went more than 5 innings, it goes into the books as a win for the Phils, and a complete game for Moyer, who was still in there ready to pitch the 8th as the rains came. So the Chaseless Phils improve to 53-49, and with the Braves and Mets losing tonight the Phils move into 2nd place, just 4 games behind the Mets for first. Also on a side note the Phils have acquired a 2nd baseman to fill in for Utley. They got Tadahito iguchi from the White Sox, for pitching prospect Micheal Dubee(yes, the son of Phils pitching coach Rich Dubee). Iguchi was a key member of the 2005 world champion White Sox and having jacked 18 homers last season he's still good enough to help the Phils. Thus, life is beautiful again.