PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils continued their series with the Mets tonight, looking to rebound from a loss in the series opener. Cole Hamels got the start and was tagged for 11 hits, but he with stood the onslaught to allow just 4 runs and keep the Phils in it long enough to pull a late rally. In the bottom of the 3rd Mike Pelfrey, the pitcher, doubled and scored on a fielder's choice for a 1-0 lead. In the top of the 4th Chase Utley slugged a solo homer to tie it at 1. In the bottom of the 4th 3 consecutive singles, by Pelfrey, Luis Castillo, and Alex Cora produced 3 runs for a 4-1 lead. In the top of the 7th the Phils came back with 3 straight singles, by Ryan Howard, Raul Ibanez, and Jayson Werth to load the bases. Then Pedro Feliz singled in one run, an error by David Wright allowed a 2nd run to score, and finally Werth scored on a fielder's choice to tie it up at 4. From there the Phils bullpen strung together 5 straight scoreless innings, thanks to the spectacular defensive play of Werth, whose diving catching preserved the 4-4 tie in the 10th inning. Finally in the top of the 11th Chase Utley slammed his 2nd homer of the night for a 5-4 lead. Ryan Madson(Lidge is now on the DL again as he's been playing through an injury all season) then retired the Mets in order in the bottom of the inning, for the 6th straight scoreless inning out of the bullpen and the 5-4 win. This was without a doubt one of the best games of the season thus far. It just doesn't get much more dramatic than a diving catch followed by an 11th inning homer. These two teams really do bring the best out of each other and it is always fun to watch. It would have been nice if Hamels could have just gone the distance again, but obviously you just can't expect than from him every night, well at least not in the regular season anyway. So the Phils move to 34-23 overall and back to 3 games up in the NL East.