Starters Brett Myers (8-5) and lefthander Horacio Ramirez (5-5) traded goose-eggs for 3 innings as only one Phil reached on a walk and 2 Braves reached on hits before the Phils offense woke up for 2 runs in the 4th and 5 runs in the 5th enroute to a 9-6 win over the Atlanta Braves in their series opener.

In the 4th inning, 1st baseman Ryan Howard (39 HRs, 101 RBIs, .294 BA) clubbed a 2 run homer, his 39th of the season.  The Braves got one back on a fielders choice.

Then in the 5th, the Phils exploded on losing pitcher Ramirez and reliever  Oscar Villarreal (8-1) for 5 runs.  Shortstop Jimmy Rollins (14 HRs, 42 RBIs) doubled in a run, rightfielder Shane Victorino (4 HRs, 23 RBIs, .272 BA) singled in a run and 2nd baseman Chase Utley (21 HRs, 71 RBIs, .326 BA) drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.  Leftfielder Pat Burrell (22 HRS, 70 RBIs) doubled in a run and centerfielder Aaron Rowand’s (12 HRs, 43 RBIs) single drove in the 5th Phillies run of the inning.  7-1 Phillies.

Atlanta came back in the bottom of the 5th inning with 3 runs as 2nd baseman Marcus Giles (9 HRs, 42 RBIs) homered with 1 on and rightfielder Jeff Francoeur (21 HRs, 78 RBIs) cut the Phils lead to 7-4.

Starter and winning pitcher Myers was then relieved in the 6th inning by  Ryan Madison (10-7) and then in the 8th by Arthur Rhodes (0-3).  They held the Braves scoreless on 2 hits from the 6th through the 8th innings while the Phils scored 2 more insurance runs in the 8th off of Braves reliever Ken Ray (1-1) as Rollins and Victorino each singled in a run. 9-4 Phillies.

In the 9th, Braves centerfielder Andruw Jones (27 HRs, 97 RBIs, .273 BA) socked a 2 run homer off of Phils reliever Geoff Geary (6-0) to closs out the scoring.

For a full recap including box score and play-by-play on Monday’s game click here.

Today, the Phillies start their rookie southpaw Cole Hamels (4-5) who has been terrific in his last 2 starts and who hopes to even his record for the season.  The Braves counter with Tim Hudson (8-10).

For full coverage of Tuesday’s games in both leagues; previews, recaps, box scores and play-by-play coverage click here.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 8th, 2006 at 10:13 am and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.