PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils continued their series with the Cardinals this afternoon and what a difference a day makes. After scoring just 1 run last night the Phils racked up 14 runs today on 14 hits, and if not for a couple of spectacular catches by Rick Ankiel they might have had even more. The Cardinals on the other hand racked up 15 hits, but Rodrigo Lopez withstood the barage to hold St. Louis to only 4 runs through 6 innings and pick up yet another win. Still, although the Phils scored 14 runs, in this game it was actually close for a few innings. The Phils got going right off the bat with 3 runs in the first inning on singles by Raul Ibanez and Pedro Feliz. By the bottom of the 6th inning though, the Cardinals were ahead 4-3, but it was at that point that the Phils broke it open with a grand slam by Jimmy Rollins and a solo homer by "the Flyin Hawaiian", Shane Victorino, for an 8-4 lead. Obviously they weren't finished yet and they put it away for good in the bottom of the 7th with another 6 runs on a single by Carlos Ruiz, a double by JRoll, a 2 run single by Victorino and a 2 run double by Ryan Howard for a 14-5 lead. That of course was all she wrote as the rookie Stephen Register(Apparently the Phils weren't happy Andrew Carpenter's performance the last 2 nights, as he was sent back down AAA) closed out the final 2 innings. So score one for the bats on this day and that leaves tomorrow to decide if it is better to have good hitting or good pitching. As for today it was good to see Lopez fight through all those innings and perhaps that maybe the Phils rotation is okay after all, with or without any marquis additions. Perhaps more encouraging is that the Phils have kept Albert Pujols pretty much in check in this series, except for one bloop hit back on Friday, and anytime you can keep him in the ballpark for a couple days it's quite an accomplishment. So anyway the Phils are now 55-40 overall and back to 6.5 games up in the NL East.