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Phillies Belt 3 Homers Behind Oswalt to Pound Braves

        
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Chase Utley   Hunter Pence   Roy Oswalt   Jimmy Rollins
Phillies starter Roy Oswalt tossed a masterful 85 pitch, 6 inning 3 hit shutout for his 9th win on Tuesday and 2nd baseman Chase Utley got the ball rolling with a first inning solo shot off of Atlanta’s Derek Lowe as the Phils scored in the first, fourth, fifth and seventh innings with shortstop Jimmy Rollins and rightfielder Hunter Pence also homering and Rollins going 3 for 5 with 2 RBIs and Pence driving in 3 runs with a sacrifice fly RBI his 2 run shot in the fifth.   Oswalt, September call-up Joe Savery, and Antonio Bastardo kept the Braves bottled up through eight innings with Savery and Bastardo going clean on the Braves in the seventh and eighth as Atlanta only averted a shutout in the ninth on leftfielder Martin Prado’s leadoff homer off of Kyle Kendrick.  The Braves had runners on in each of the 1st four innings but came up empty before Oswalt retired the final 6 hitters in a row, 4 of them on strikes as the Phillies belted 3 homers behind Oswalt to pound the Braves 7-1 in the 2nd of their regular season-ending 3 game series.

With the Atlanta Braves falling again to the Phils and St. Louis routing Houston, the Braves and Cardinals are now tied for the NL Wild Card spot with both teams playing their final regular season game today.    Boston and Tampa Bay face the same tie situation for the AL Wild Card berth.  If the Wild Card race in one and/or both leagues remains tied after Wednesday’s games, there will be a playoff game(s) on Thursday to decide the winner(s).

Like the Mets’ Mike Pelfrey 2 games ago, Lowe seemed more of what the doctor prescribed to bulk up the Phillies offense before the playoffs.   The Phils banged up Lowe for 5 runs on 6 hits through four innings and dinged 2 call-up relievers for a run each in the fifth and seventh innings.

The Phils tied their All-Time franchise record for wins in a season with their 101st win on Tuesday and Charlie Manuel tied  Gene Mauch’s mark for most wins (645) by a Phils manager…  It took Manuel a lot less time to get there.

AP’s game recap for Yahoo sports provides more highlights of Tuesday’s game.

For all of Tuesday’s scores and recaps, click here.

The Phils hope to sweep the Braves and gain an all-time franchise record 102nd win on Wednesday as, surprisingly, Joe Blanton gets another start before the playoffs.  The Phils indicate that they plan to use lefthander Cole Hamels in relief in the tune-up for the playoffs which open on Saturday.  Blanton will oppose Tim Hudson for the Braves who hope to clinch at least a tie for the NL Wild card spot with a deciding playoff game then taking place on Thursday.

All of MLB’s playoff teams will then have at least 2 days off (Sept. 29 and 30) before the NLDS games begin on Saturday.

PLEASE NOTE:  There will be no Thursday post of Wednesday’s Phillies final regular season game due to the onset of Rosh Hashana — the Jewish New Year.    Wednesday’s game post may only appear on either Saturday night or Sunday.

For all of Wednesday’s scheduled games throughout MLB, click here.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 at 7:06 am and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary
Phillies and NL East, Analysis, Predictions, etc
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