The Marlins jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but that was the last run they would score as the Phillies pounded starter Elih Villanueva in his major league debut. All eight Phillies runs came in the first three innings and all were charged to Villanueva, who gave up five hits and five walks in his three innings of work.
The game was busted open with a 6-run third inning that saw both a Wilson Valdez 3-run triple and a Jimmy Rollins 3-run homer. Valdez very nearly had an in the park grand slam and Rollins had 4 RBI on the day.
As it turned out though, the Phillies really didn’t all the runs with Kyle Kendrick on the hill, who was fantastic over seven innings. He gave up just five hits, one run and struck out five. Plus, he needed only 88 pitches to get through seven innings.
The win was the fifth in a row for the Phillies, who will send Roy Halladay to the mound tonight looking to extend the winning streak to a season high six games and to claim his MLB leading 10th win.