PHILLIES NEWS

With Cole Hamels pitching tonight in his hometown of San Diego it was sure bet he would have a good night. Unfortunately, Padres' ace Chris Young was just a little bit better. While Hamels went 7 solid innings, allowing just 1 run on 2 hits while striking out 3, Young went 7 masterful innings blanking the Phils on 3 hits, while striking out 6. Even when he got into a jam Young was a step ahead of the Phils, as he pitched around Ryan Howard each time, and forced out Aaron Rowand to end each inning. The Padres league best bullpen then kept the Phils scoreless the rest of the way as they fell in frustrating fashion 1-0. The Phils did actually have one last chance in the 9th inning after Rowand walked and Pat Burrell singled to put the tying run on second with one out. In the end, legendary Padres closer Trevor Hoffman proved to be too much as he fooled Greg Dobbs and Carlos Ruiz into game-ending strikeouts. So the Phils now drop back under .500 at 47-48 and are now back to 6 games behind the first place Mets who defeated the Dodgers tonight. Thus, life still sucks.