PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils finished off their 3 game set with the Cubs early this afternoon. Unfortunately, they finished with a whimper instead of a flourish. The veteran Jamie Moyer got the start and pitched fairly well, allowing just 4 runs on 9 hits in 5 innings of work. Meanwhile, the Phils sprayed the ball around for 5 runs on 10 hits and appeared well on their way to victory, before a late defensive gaffe did them in. The Phils struck first in the bottom of the 1st as Jayson Werth(starting in place of Shane Victorino who is now on the 15 day DL) scored on a sac fly by Pat Burrell. The Cubs finally answered back in the top of the 3rd, as 3 straight singles by Henry Blanco, Alphonso Soriano, and Reed Johnson, and a double by Derek Lee led to 3 runs and a 3-1 Cubs' lead. In the bottom of the 5th, Werth struck again with a solo homer to cut the lead to 3-2. In the top of the 6th, Mark Derosa answered Werth with his own solo homer, despite the fact that replays clearly showed it to be a foul ball, as the Umps apparently were only paying attention long enough to toss a livid Charlie Manuel from the game. Then in the bottom of the inning Eric Bruntlett hit a solo homer, Carlos Ruiz, Geoff Jenkins, and Werth each singled, and finally Chase Utley hit a sac fly to push the Phils ahead seemingly for good, 5-4. Then things began to unravel. In the top of the 8th Giovanni Soto singled in a run to tie it at 5, as neither Flash Gordon nor J.C Romero could shut the door on the Cubs. Then came the bottom of the 9th where Ruiz was robbed of a game winning single on a great snare at 1st by Lee. The Collapse became complete in the top of the 10th, as with one out and two on, Carlos Zambrano, yes the pitcher from Friday, came into pinch hit and grounded into what appeared to be a dead double play ball, but Utley's relay to first went into the dirt and Ryan Howard couldn't dig it out, allowing a run to score for a 6-5 Cub's lead. Utley nearly redeemed himself in the bottom of the inning with a two out double, but two batters later Sao Taguchi grounded into the last out to cap off a 6-5 Cubs win. So the once again the Phils fail to get above .500 in April as they drop to 6-7 overall.