PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils concluded their 3 games series with the Braves today, with a nationally televised prime time affair. It was a great game, with a playoff-like atmosphere that showed up right from the beginning. In the top of the first inning Chipper Jones slapped a 2 run single for a 2-0 Braves lead. The Phils came back with a run in the bottom of inning on a single by Jayson Werth. Unfortunately ,Pat Burrell was gunned down by Jeff Francoeur, while trying to score a 2nd run. After that both starters, Jamie Moyer for the Phils and Buddy Carlyle for the Braves, beared down and stopped the scoring until the 5th inning. The Phils actually could have scored in the 4th inning as well, but Werth was gunned down by Francoeur while trying to score from 2nd on another single, this time by Abraham Nunez. That set the stage for the 5th inning, where with 2 on and 1 out, Ryan Howard crushed a 3 run homer to put the Phils up 4-2. Atlanta cut the lead to 4-3 in the 7th on a double by Martin Prado, but the Phils came right back again in the bottom of inning, with a run of their own, as Jimmy Rollins tripled and scored on a sac fly by Pat Burrell, to put the Phils up 5-3. With Moyer pitching into 7th, and the bullpen piecing together outs that lead stood up the rest of the way for a 5-3 Philss victory. So, the Phils improve to 62-55, but remain 3 games behind the Mets in the NL East, and 1 game behind the Padres in the wildcard race. Still, life is beautiful once again.