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Phils Squeak By Braves In Unbelievable Finish

The Phillies won any way they could Friday night, taking every opportunity and turning it to their favor in a wild 4-3 win against the Braves in Atlanta.

Shane Victorino deserves the most praise, getting to Braves starter Tim Hudson early with a triple, then winning the game with another in the 10th inning. Of course, nobody can forget his beam that beat Gregor Blanco and closed the door on the Braves 10th inning rally. As you can see, the throw beat Blanco by maybe a few inches.

Jamie Moyer also turned in a gutsy performance going 5.1 innings and walking a fine line most of the night. An absent Braves offense couldn’t capitalize off what the Phils were giving them, sans a Brian McCann home run. Chipper Jones continued his torrid hitting pace with two more.

Big hand to the bullpen, as well. Chad Durbin pitched out of Moyer’s jam in the sixth, and the rest of the ‘pen (JC Romero, Ryan Madson, Rudy Seanez, Tom Gordon) kept the Braves at bay before handing the ball to Brad Lidge with the lead. He wasn’t quite on his game, with hitters striking him well for a couple hits, but luckily, Victorino took care of that.

At the end of the day, the Phils weren’t even supposed to have that opportunity to win. But the Braves made their mistakes, and just as great teams do, the Phils capitalized. Now 3.5 games up in the National League East, the Phils are starting to feel, smell, taste, sound and look like a great team.

Associated Press photo

Tim Malcolm

Tim first found the Phillies as a little infant at Veteran’s Stadium, cheering on a Juan Samuel game-winning home run in his very first game. With the pinstripes in his blood, he witnessed Terry Mulholland’s 1990 no-hitter, “Steve Carlton Night” at the Vet, game three of the 1993 World Series, countless games during the charmed 2008 championship season and various road excursions. Since November 2007 Tim’s been writing about them daily at Phillies Nation, becoming one of the world’s most popular Phillies scribes. You can catch him on Twitter and Facebook, as well. When he’s not talking about the Phils he’s relaxing with a St. Bernardus ABT 12 or one of his many favored brews.