PHILLIES NEWS

If you thought the Phillies injury parade was finally over, you were wrong. Exactly 1 inning into his Phillies career, pitcher Kyle Lohse was hit in the right forearm with a line drive and suffered a contusion. He left after the inning was over, having allowed 1 run on 2 hits, and was replaced by J.D Durbin, who before the acquisition of Lohse, was scheduled to start today's game anyway and wouldn't you know it, after all was said and done he walked away the winning pitcher on the day. Using a little luck, and some timely hitting the Phils built an early 7-1 lead, on a 2 out double by Ryan Howard in the 1st, a solo homer by Pat Burrell, bases loaded single by Jayson Werth, and a sac fly by Tad Iguchi in the 2nd, and finally a single by Chris Coste and a 2 out double by Jayson Werth in the 3rd inning. After J.D Durbin got through the 4th inning with the Phils still ahead 7-4, the rest of the Phils bullpen nearly gave it away, as Chicago cut the lead to 7-6 heading into the 9th. Fortunately, doubles from Carlos Ruiz and Jayson Werth in the top of the inning helped the Phils push the lead back to 3 and Brett Myers tossed a 1-2-3 9th inning for a 10- 6 Phils win to split the series with Cubs. So the Phils improve to 57-51, but remain tied for second place in the NL East with the Braves, 4 games behind the Mets who won again today. Still, life is beautiful again.