PHILLIES NEWS

The injury bug continued to hit the Phils hard this afternoon in Washington. In the 1st inning Ryan Howard sprained his ankle while trying to get back to 2nd on a pick off attempt, and had to be helped off the field. Apparently he isn't going to go on the DL and the sprain isn't too serious so hopefully he'll be back in a week or less. Anyway back to today despite losing Howard, the Phils managed to score a couple runs in the 1st for an early 2-0 lead. Meanwhile, Cole Hamels looked great through the first few innings and it seemed the 2 runs would be enough for him. Unfortunately, 2 mistakes, to Ryan Zimmerman in the 4th and Adam Dunn in the 6th cost him and the Phils dearly and they found themselves down 4-2 through 6. They didn't go away though. In the top of the 7th, an RBI double by Placido Polanco and a fielder's choice tied it up at 4. Then Cole Hamels finished his day with a scoreless 7th. So in all, he allowed just 4 runs on 6 hits, while striking out 10 in a solid 7 innings.

After the 7th J.C Romero and Ryan Madson combined for scoreless 8th and 9th innings. The Phils also couldn't push a run across in the 8th or 9th so the game went into extra innings. Washington almost won it in the 10th with Nyjer Morgan on 3rd with 2 out and Adam Dunn at the plate, but Jose Contreras retired Dunn to keep the game alive. Finally with 2 out in the top of the 11th Polanco broke the tie with an RBI single and scored on a double by Jayson Werth for a 6-4 lead. In came Brad Lidge again for the save and this time, unlike last night, he had his control and managed to a 1-2-3 inning to close out the 6-4 win. So the Phils at least salvage a win in Washington and thanks to another Braves loss they're back within 2.5 games of the lead in the NL East. You just wonder how many more injuries they can survive.