PHILLIES NEWS

After yet another disappointing showing from his team last night, Charlie Manuel decided to shake things up as the Phils began a series with the Florida Marlins tonight. He gave Jayson Werth another night off and put Ben Francisco in right field and in the number 5 spot in order, in his place. The moved turned out to be serendipitous as Francisco collected 2 hits, knocked in 2 runs, scored 2 runs and proved to be a key player on the night. He was not alone in his offensive prowess though. In fact Carlos Ruiz proved to be the Phils only starter who could not hit safely in the game as they exploded for 10 runs on 13 hits. The way the Phils bats had been going lately it fell like more of a volcanci eruption than just a mere explosion and despite it all the Phils almost lost.

3 time the Phils fell behind in this and 3 times they rallied back before victory was assured. Kyle Kendrick was tagged early and often from the onset, allowing 6 runs on 6 hits in just 5 innings of work. By the end of the Marlins half of the 3rd inning it was already 4-0 and things did not look good. Then in the bottom of the 3rd, Ryan Howard crushed a 2 run homer and Francisco manufactured a run with a single and stolen base followed a Raul Ibanez RBI single to cut it to 4-3. Florida quickly pushed it back to 6-3 in the 4th inning, but Shane Victorino answered with a solo shot in the bottom of the 4th to cut it to 6-4. Then in the 5th an error, an infield single by Ibanez, and a fielder's choice allowed the Phils to bleed out 2 more runs to pull even at 6. One inning later a sac fly by Chase Utley made it 7-6 Phils, their first lead of the night. It didn't last long as Florida rallied for runs in the 7th and 8th to push back out to an 8-7 lead. Finally the Phils engineered one final rally in the bottom of the 8th. Francisco slapped a clutch 2 out 2 run single and then scored on a infield singly by Wilson Valdez to put the Phils up seemingly for good at 10-8

However, Florida also put togethet a final rally against Brad Lidge but he was up for the test. After allowing a leadoff single to Hanley Ramirez, He struck out Jorge Cantu and Dan Uggla. Then pitched around Cody Ross to put 2 on with 2 out for rookie Mike Stanton. Having never seen Lidge before Stanton was as an easy mark after 3 pitches he grounded into a game ending forceout at 2nd except Wilson Valdez forgot to put his foot on the bag, allowing Cody Ross to slide in safely and load the bases for ex-Phil Ronnie Paulino. After a few more pitches Lidge got Paulino to harmlessly pop out and the Phils had their 10-8 win. Hopefully they can build off this and get back to scoring runs like we know they can. Until here's hoping for another perfecto from Roy tomorrow.