The offensive drought ended in the Phillies first at bat as team leader Jimmy Rollins led off the home first with a triple to deep right.  Shane Victorino then plated Rollins with a double to right field.  Ryan Howard capped the first inning scoring with an RBI single to score Victorino.

Brett Myers made that lead stand up thru seven frames as he limited the Bucs to four hits.  The only run he allowed came in the fourth frame.  Nate McClouth doubled to right field to score Doug Meintkiewcz.   The Phillies scored their third run of the game in the home seventh as Rollins again tripled to right field, his fourth hit of the game!  Victorino again knocked in his top of the order partner with a single to left field this time.  When these two are making things happen the Fightins are tough to beat!  The leadoff tandem had six hits in the game between them.

Myers pitched into the eighth inning and recorded two outs but was touched for a double by Chris Gomez and was lifted in favor of J.C. Romero who came in to end the inning.  Myers was not happy about being lifted and voiced his opinion openly on the mound to the skipper Charlie Manuel.  Manuel confronted Myers in the dugout and the TV cameras caught the brief nose to nose “discussion”.   Myers is a competitor but Skipper Manuel has proven he is in control of this ship and will take no guff from his players.  As you might tell I am a Charlie Manuel fan and incidents like this are why.  He handled it promptly and put it to rest.  In my opinion he is an excellent manager simply by the way he handles his people.  Players are not encumbered on this team but there is one boss and he will not be shown up!

Jayson Werth led off the bottom of the eighth with a triple off the right field wall.  Greg Dobbs singled him in for the fourth run of the game.  Dobbs was two for three in game, he was lifted for pinch hitter Eric Bruntlett who stayed in the game to play third base in the ninth.

Chad Durbin pitched the ninth inning as Brad Lidge was given the night off.  Durbin gave up a run but was able to finish and earn the first save of his career.   I know from experience that closing a game is a bit harder than pitching the set up innings!  Good job Chad in ultimately coming thru!

Chatter

The team officially retired number 36 in honor of Robin Roberts before the game.  Roberts is a Hall of Famer and was the ace of the 1950 Whiz kids that went to the World Series.   Jamie Moyer takes the hill tommorrow, the 46 year old plans on being back with the team next season to honor his contract, in fact when asked by a reporter he stated he would not rule out playing till 50!  John Russell, the Pirates skipper, who caught Moyer when they were teammates in Texas thinks he possibly could !