Cole Hamels turned in a fine performance in his last start of year striking out 8 and allowing just 1 run over 7 innings of work as the Phillies beat the Marlins 4-1.
Hamels finishes the year with career highs in strikeouts (216) and wins 17.
Carlos Ruiz continued steaming toward the finish with a 3 hit game. He's hitting .330 on the season. Nate Scheirholtz had a pair of hits and an RBI.
Jonathon Papelbon worked around a couple singles in the 9th for his 38th save of the season.
The Phillies now head to Washington for their final series of the season. One win will guarantee them at least a .500 record.
Saturday night, the Phillies evened the series on a 9-5 win on a handful of great offensive performances, especially from Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley. Rollins went 3-for-4 on the night with three runs and Utley went 2-of-4 with two runs and three runs batted in. Roy Halladay (11-8, 4.49 ERA) earned the win for Philadelphia.
All was not well for the Phillies though, who lost first baseman Ryan Howard for the rest of the season with a broken right big toe he sustained when warming up in the on-deck circle.
Despite Philadelphia's struggles this season, Cole Hamels has had arguably the best year of his career. His 16 wins are currently his career best for a season, and he is just four strikeouts shy of setting a personal season record as well.
The Marlins' Nathan Eovaldi is 0-3 with a 6.43 ERA in his three starts against the Phillies this season. The last time he started against Philadelphia was on September 11, when he pitched four innings, allowing five runs on eight hits.
The game will be broadcast on PHL 17 in Philadelphia and on FS-F HD in Miami.
The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Miami Marlins, 9-5, on Saturday night at Marlins Park to even their three-game series at one game apiece.
Miami took a 3-0 lead in the first inning but couldn't hold it, as Philadelphia scored eight runs down the stretch to topple Ozzie Guillen's club.
The Phillies got a mediocre performance out of ace Roy Halladay, but overcame it to earn their 78th win of the season. Halladay only pitched five innings and allowed four runs on six hits and three walks while striking out seven.
The season is unfortunately over for the Philadelphia Phillies — an unfamiliar feeling for Philly baseball fans after the last few seasons of prosperity — but they still have to play the games, and Roy Halladay will take the mound to likely conclude his worst season in more than a decade Saturday night against the Marlins.
After being officially eliminated from postseason contention last night in walkoff fashion despite Cliff Lee's brilliant start, the Phillies will take the field and try to rebound. Standing at 78-79, the Phillies are trying to avoid having their first losing season since 2002, when they went 80-81.
Halladay will take the hill sporting a 4.40 ERA, the worst in a season for him in his entire career. He hasn't been healthy, and at this point the Phillies are hoping he can inspire hope for a bounceback season next season, considering he's 35 and recovering from injury. Ricky Nolasco will take the ball for the Marlins. First pitch is 7:10 p.m. ET.
The Philadelphia Phillies opened their final road trip of the season with a tough 2-1 loss to the Miami Marlins. Cliff Lee was once again steady on the mound, but the offense was nowhere to be found in support. Lee pitched seven innings, walking no one and allowing just three hits. He made one mistake to slugger Giancarlo Stanton, who launched a solo homer over the left-field wall in the bottom of the fourth. Aside from that, Lee shut down the Marlins and kept his struggling offense in it.
But Charlie Manuel's lineup could never quite get the lead. Mark Buerhle, who works faster than any pitcher in the game, was dealing and kept the Phillies off the board until the eighth. John Mayberry started the threat when he led off the inning with a double ripped deep to left. Buerhle retired the next two batters he faced, but Jimmy Rollins would come through with the clutch hit to even things up. Rollins took a 2-1 offering to left for a single that scored Mayberry.
It wouldn't remain tied for long, however, as the Fish put together a walk-off rally in the bottom of the ninth. Josh Lindblom came out of the pen to try and keep things even, but Bryan Petersen promptly led off with a double. Petersen would come across on a Carlos Lee single two batters later, scoring the winning run.
The Phillies will now send Roy Halladay to the mound on Saturday to try and even up the series in his final start of the season.
