PHILLES NEWS

Big night tonight for the Phils as they opened a 4 game series with the NL East leading Mets. Fortunately, team leader and MVP candidate Chase Utley returned to the lineup and didn't disappoint, going 3 for 5 with an RBI double and a solo homer. Tad Iguchi and Pat Burrell each crushed two run homers, Jayson Werth racked up 4 hits and an RBI, and Chris Coste added an RBI double ,as the Phils crushed 9 runs on 18 hits off the Mets. Meanwhile, in another spot start(Hamels remains on the DL until the weekend), J.D Durbin was impressive going 6 and 1/3rd innings while allowing just 2 runs on 2 hits. Antonio Alfonseca, J.C Romero, Tom Gordon, and Clay Condrey then combined out of the bullpen for 3 and 2/3rds innings of shutout ball to close out a key 9-2 victory. So the Phils improve to 68-62 overall, now just 5 games behind the Mets in the NL East, and as of now 2.5 games behind the Padres(currently they are locked in a scoreless tie with the Diamondbacks through 4 innings) in the wildcard. Thus, life remains beautiful.