PHILLIES NEWS

Fresh off a rain shortened series in Colorado the Phils traveled to Milwaukee tonight to begin a weekend series with the Brewers. While Jamie Moyer turned back the clock in with a complete game shutout in his last start both teams did so tonight as they donned their uniforms from the 70s, with the Phils in their old blue and maroon road jerseys. Although he goes back about as far as those unis Moyer continued to look under his age in this one going another 6 strong while allowing just 3 runs on 5 hits. Meanwhile Ryan Howard bashed a 2 run homer in the 1st, Raul Ibanez slapped an RBI double in the 2nd and a solo shot in 4th, Shane Victorino tripled in 2 runs in 4th, and singled in a run in the 6th, and finally Placido Polanco hit a sac fly in the 6th, to pace the Phils to an 8-3 lead. After that Jamie ran out of gas in the 7th, allowing Milwaukee to cut the score to 8-5 and briefly get back into it, but the Phils bullpen hung tough from there.


David Herndon closed out the 7th for Jamie. Danys Baez pitched into and out of trouble in the 8th inning. Finally, after Chase Utley hit one of those 'How did he do that' solo homers in the top of the inning to push the lead to 9-5, Jose Contreras closed it out but only after allowing a 1 out single and making things interesting. Fortunately Wilson Valdez made a great leaping catch a line drive to finish the night. Still, it was another job well done for Contreras. It's the 5th win of the season already for the ageless Moyer and who knows how many more there will be. With Brian Schneider and Carlos Ruiz both nursing injuries Paul Hoover got the start at catcher and proved to be a worthy replacement, reaching base twice with a single and a walk and calmly working through the night with the Phils pitching staff. He's actually a 33 year old veteran and this is his 7th time being up in the big leagues so he should be quite capable of holding down the fort for a while. It was still nice to see him play so well though. Anyway the Phils are now 21-13 overall and remain 1st in the NL East, 1.5 games up on the Nationals.