Phillies use late homers to snap 4 game losing streak

(AP Photo/Tom Mihalek)

The Phillies offense has been in a funk lately but they did just enough to squeak past the Cardinals, 4-2, and earn a victory that snapped their four game losing streak. The game was tied 2-2 in the 8th inning when Ryan Howard hit a homer to break the tie and Pedro Feliz followed three batters later with a homer of his own to give the Phils a 2 run cushion. For Howard, it was his 25th of the season and that ties him with Chase Utley for the league lead:

As it says in the clip, that homer also gives Howard 80 RBIs on the season which breaks the Phillies team record for most RBIs before the All-Star break. Howard also got a pair of hits in the game, raising his average to .231, the highest its been since April 5th, the 5th game of the season! Howard has really started to turn things around this month, hitting .361 with 5 homers and 12 RBIs in July.

J.A. Happ put together a solid start, going 6 and 1/3rd innings and giving up only 2 earned runs. Happ walked 4 batters and gave up 5 hits, but he managed to pitch his way out of most of the jams. Seeing Happ go deeper into the game was a welcome sight, one that shows he may develop into a reliable starter sooner rather than later.

Brad Lidge made things interesting in the 9th, but he was able to continue his perfect streak of 20 saves in 20 attempts.