Phillies 1st baseman Ryan Howard (HRs 57, 140 RBIs, .314 BA) hit homer #57, one of 4 Phillie homers, 7 between the 2 teams for the game and lefthander Randy Wolf (4-0) got the Phils into the 6th inning with a lead which stood up as the Phils swept the Houston Astros winning by a 6-4 score.  The sweep was the first by the Phillies of the Astros since May 2002.  With the win, the Phils stayed a game behind the L.A. Dodgers for the NL wild card lead as the Dodgers fell to the San Diego Padres by a  2-1 score and the Padres took over the NL West Division lead.

The Phils opened up the scoring on losing pitcher lefthander Wandy Rodriguez (9-10) with a run in the 1st inning on rightfielder Jeff Conine’s 10 HRs, 61 RBIs, .269 BA) ground-rule double to rightfield.

In the 3rd inning, shortstop Jimmy Rollins (21 HRs, 72 RBIs, .274 BA) and Howard each solo homered off of Rodriguez to give the Phils a 3-0 lead.  In the 4th, catcher Mike Lieberthal (9 HRs, 34 RBIs, .279 BA) solo homered, his 1st of 2 homers for the game and the Phils led 4-0 after 4 innings.

Rodriguez pitched 5 full innings for Houston giving up 4 runs on 6 hits and was relieved by Dave Borkowski (1-2) in the 6th inning.  With 2 out and the bases jammed, Borkowski uncorked a wild pitch and leftfielder Pat Burrell (25 HRs, 88 RBIs) came home with the Phillies 5th run. 

The Astros scored 3 runs off of Wolf in their half of the 6th inning to narrow the gap to 5-3.  2nd baseman Craig Biggio (19 HRs, 51 RBIs) clubbed a solo homer to leftfield and rightfielder Aubrey Huff (18 HRs, 60 RBIs, .265 BA) whacked a 2 run shot to left centerfield.   Rich White (4-1, S1) relieved winning pitcher Wolf with 2 out in the 6th and struck out leftfielder Jason Lane (14 HRs, 44 RBIs) looking to end the inning.  White pitched a 1-2-3 7th inning.  Wolf once again pitched well except for the 3 run 6th inning. He gave up 5 hits, struck out 5 and walked 2.

In the 8th inning, Lieberthal hit his 2nd homer of the game, another solo blast off of reliever Russ Springer (1-1, 3.72 ERA) to cap the Phillies scoring.  6-3 Phillies. 

In the bottom of the 8th inning, 1st baseman Lance Berkman (41 HRs, 122 RBIs, .311 BA) solo homered to right centerfield off of Phils reliever  Geoff Geary (7-1, 2.99 ERA, S1) to end the scoring for the Astros.

Closer Tom Gordon (3-4, 3.15 ERA, S31) pitched the 9th inning for the Phils and was credited with the save although he got into a bit of trouble with 2 on and 2 out before retiring the side to end the game.

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

On Monday, the Phillies return home for 3 games with the Chicago Cubs followed by 3 games with the Florida Marlins as the Phils drive to take over the NL wild card lead. 

In the opener with the Cubs, the Phils send Jon Lieber (8-9) to the mound to oppose Cubs lefthander Sean Marshall (5-9).

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

Add to:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. | del.icio.us | digg | Furl | Reddit | YahooMyWeb |

This entry was posted on Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 8:31 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.