PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils kept the good times rolling tonight against the Mets. Early on it looked like it was going to be a shootout, as David Wright hit a solo homer in the top of the 1st and Pat Burrell and Jimmy Rollins countered with solo shots of their own in the bottom of the inning for a 2-1 lead. In the end though, both Jamie Moyer for the Phils and Oliver Perez for the Mets settled down the rest of the way with each allowing only one more run, For his part, Moyer wound up providing the Phils with 6 solid innings allowing just 2 runs on 8 hits while striking out 4. Perez meanwhile, came unglued in the 5th inning, loading the bases with nobody out. Burrell then nearly crushed a gamebreaking grand slam, but it died on the warning track and went for a sac fly instead to put the Phils ahead 3-2. Behind sparkling defense, J.C Romero and Tom Gordon blanked the Mets in the 7th and 8th innings. Then in the 9th Brett Myers ran into a little trouble, allowing runners on the corners with just one out. Fortunately, at that point Shawn Green hit a little dribbler towards second for one out, and former phil, Marlon Anderson momentarily forgot he wasn't with the Phils anymore, as he needlessly barreled into second baseman Tad Iguchi (Utley got the night off), drawing an interference call and automatic 3rd out to end the game in a phils win. So the Phils improve to 70-62, now just 3 games behind the Mets and as usual 2.5 games behind the wild card leading Padres, who currently are tied with the Diamondbacks 1-1 in the 4th inning. Thus, life remains beautiful.