PHILLIES NEWS

In an effort to rectify what went wrong in last night's game, Chris Roberson was moved into the lead off spot for tonight's game. Unfortunately, instead of going 4 for 4 again, he went 0 for 5 and the Phils lost again. Despite the 0 for 5 tag, Roberson did manage to reach base in the first inning via an error, as the Phils loaded the bases with nobody out. However, just as in the 9th inning last night, Ryan Howard and Aaron Rowand both went down swinging. Then after a long at bat that allowed Roberson to score on a wild pitch, and Pat Burrell to reach on a walk, Carlos Ruiz popped out to end the inning. The Cubs meanwhile, roughed up Jamie Moyer in the early going, using a 2 out single by Matt Murton in the first inning, a 1 out single by the pitcher, Rich Hill in the second, and consecutive two out hits by Ronny Cedeno and Jacque Jones in the 3rd inning, to build a 4-1 lead. Still, Moyer settled down, pitching 5 solid innings of 4 run, 9 hit ball, and the Phils rallied back to tie it in that same 5th inning, on a single by Jimmy Rollins, a double by Ryan Howard, and a solo homer by Aaron Rowand. After that the bullpens of the two teams dueled, racking up strikeout after strikeout until the 9th inning where it all fell apart. First, in the top of the inning, the Phils loaded the bases with two outs and appeared primed to push ahead and set up Brett Myers to get the save in the bottom of the inning. However, Carlos Ruiz grounded out weakly to end the inning and instead Myers was forced to pitch in a tie game, which apparently threw him off completely as he loaded the bases with nobody out and threw 2 wild pitches, allowing Matt Murton to scamper home with the winning run. Thus, the Cubs won 5-4 and the Phils dropped to 56-51, which puts them back in 3rd place, 5 games behind the Mets and 1 behind the Braves, who both won tonight. So, accordingly life still sucks.