PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils traveled to Atlanta tonight to begin a series with the Braves. Back in action after missing a couple starts with an injury,J.A Happ got the start and pitched well, but he tweaked his injury again and had to leave after the 3rd inning. Fortunately, Kyle Kendrick picked up the slack tossing 4 scoreless innings in relief, to help limit Atlanta to just 1 run on 8 hits through 7. Meanwhile, the Phils put up 3 runs during that time, thanks to a 2 run blast by Ryan Howard in the 4th inning, and a solo shot by Howard in the 6th inning. A 2 run single by Jayson Werth in the 8th inning push the lead to 5-1, before Tyler Walker allowed Atlanta to cut it to 5-3 in the bottom of the inning. The Phils put it away for good in the 9th inning with a 3 run homer by Jimmy Rollins and a solo homer by Ben Francisco pushing the lead to 9-3. Finally in the bottom of the 9th, after allowing a run Chad Durbin closed out a 9-4 win, their 6th in a row. Tonight was just another case of Mr.September wielding his magic. This 2 homer night is exactly what you expect to see out of Howard this time of year and it move him to 40 hrs on the season now, his 4th straight season with at least 40 homers and 120 RBIs. The record for such seasons in a row is 6. It was a downer though to see Happ reinjure himself. Hopefully it's not too serious and he'll be back again, but if not it seems Kyle Kendrick or Jamie Moyer can easily pick up the slack. What an advantage it is to have so many strong arms on one team. Speaking of injuries the prognosis for Chan Ho Park was not too bad, as he is expected to only miss 2-3 weeks, so he'll be back before the end of the season. So anyway the Phils move to 86-60 overall now and remain 8 games up in the NL East. Oh and since it is that time of year their magic number is currently 9 with 16 games to play.