Phils Get Rocked

Lose 10-5 to Colorado, and drop to 0-2 in the best of 5

Home or away, these Colorado Rockies are on quite a roll.

Kaz Matsui hit his first career grand slam and drove in five runs, leading the Rockies over the Philadelphia Phillies 10-5 Thursday for a 2-0 lead in their NL playoff series.

Matsui connected off scheduled Game 4 starter Kyle Lohse, rushed in to relieve struggling rookie Kyle Kendrick in the fourth inning.

At this rate, the best-of-five series may not get that far. Rookie Ubaldo Jimenez will try to pitch Colorado to a sweep Saturday night at Coors Field against veteran Jamie Moyer.

Making just the second postseason appearance in the franchise's 15-year history, Colorado is on the verge of going to its first NL championship series. The wild-card Rockies posted their eighth straight road victory, and have won 16 of 17 overall.

Matsui fell a single short of the cycle, and Troy Tulowitzki and Matt Holliday homered on consecutive pitches in the first inning off Kendrick, who got a quick hook from manager Charlie Manuel.

The Phillies had a chance to make it interesting in the eighth, loading the bases with two outs. But closer Manny Corpas came in and retired Carlos Ruiz on a bouncer to third. Corpas worked around a pair of two-out singles in a scoreless ninth for his second save in as many days.

Before the game, Corpas came under scrutiny because he was caught by TBS cameras on Wednesday taking a sip of a liquid out of a cup in the bullpen, then pouring some down the back of his neck and all over the front of his jersey. He was seen patting his chest and rubbing his fingers before throwing a pitch, but didn't appear to do anything shady in this appearance.

Jimmy Rollins homered and drove in four runs and Ryan Howard also connected for Philadelphia, which ended a 14-year playoff drought by capturing the NL East title on the final day of the season.

But it's been downhill for the Phillies since they followed a wild celebration Sunday with a pep rally at City Hall the next day.

The heavily criticized Manuel gave his critics plenty of ammunition with two questionable moves.

With the Phillies leading 3-2 in the fourth, Manuel pulled Kendrick after pinch-hitter Seth Smith's infield single loaded the bases with two outs.

Manuel called on Lohse, who made two relief appearances on side days down the stretch. Lohse got ahead 1-2 on Matsui, before grooving a fastball. Matsui drove it into the right-field seats to give the Rockies a 6-3 lead and silence the largest crowd ever at four-year-old Citizens Bank Park.

A total of 45,991 came out, waved their rally towels and cheered wildly despite the score -- somewhat out of character for the notoriously tough Philly boobirds. But they sure gave Jose Mesa an earful when the reliever struggled in the sixth.

Manuel inexplicably used Mesa, who had a 5.54 ERA in 40 games with the Phillies, instead of Clay Condrey to start the inning. Mesa walked the first two batters he faced and allowed a two-run double to Yorvit Torrealba that put the Rockies ahead 8-3. Mesa stayed in and retired pitcher Josh Fogg, before Manuel finally came out and got him.

Condrey gave up an RBI triple to Matsui and RBI single to Holliday to give the Rockies a 10-3 lead.

Matsui, Colorado's leadoff hitter, had just four homers in 410 at-bats this season. He flied out to center in his last at-bat, finishing 3-for-5.

Rookie Franklin Morales lasted just three innings, allowing three runs and three hits in his ninth career start. The 21-year-old Venezuelan played in the All-Star Futures game in July, made his big league debut a month later and earned his first win in Philly on Sept. 11.

Fogg relieved the hard-throwing lefty, and pitched two scoreless innings to earn the win. Fogg started Monday when Colorado beat San Diego in 13 innings in the wild-card tiebreaker.

On an unseasonably warm fall afternoon in Philly -- it was 82 degrees at game time -- the balls were flying out early.

Tulowitzki, the Rookie of the Year candidate, gave the Rockies a 1-0 on a towering drive that landed in the flower bed just beyond the left-center field wall and bounced onto the field. Thinking the ball was in play, Tulowitzki slid into third base, got up and jogged home.

There was no doubt about Holliday's shot. He ripped one deep onto the left-field seats for his second homer in two games and his sixth in six games in Philadelphia this season.

Rollins, who had a career-best 30 homers, connected on Morales' first pitch in the bottom of the first to slice Colorado's lead to 2-1.

Morales ran into trouble in the second. Ruiz doubled to right-center to put runners at second and third with one out. After Kendrick grounded out, Rollins came through.

With the crowd chanting "M-V-P!" he lined a two-run triple to left-center to give the Phillies their first lead of the series, 3-2.

The Rockies elected to pitch to Rollins with a base open and Chase Utley up next. Though he hit .332 during the season, Utley struck out his first five at-bats in this series.

Kendrick, who led NL rookies with 10 wins, allowed five runs and five hits in 3 2-3 innings.

Notes

Rollins hit the first leadoff homer in the Phillies' postseason history. ... The Phillies haven't won a postseason game since Curt Schilling shut out Toronto in Game 5 of the 1993 World Series. That series ended with Joe Carter's homer clinching the championship for the Blue Jays. ... Colorado's bullpen has allowed one earned run in nine innings.

>>YahooSports

NL East Champs

Rollins(MVP) Howard Myers

Phillies NL East Champions

The Phillies led, 7-0, before taking the field, thanks to Tom Glavine's first-inning meltdown at Shea Stadium.

Fellow baseball senior citizen Jamie Moyer had no such difficulty, soft-tossing the Phillies to a 6-1 win over the Nationals on Sunday, securing their first National League East title and playoff appearance since 1993.

The celebration began with a strikeout of the Nationals' Wily Mo Pena. Like Jesse Orosco with the Mets in 1986, closer Brett Myers flung his glove high as he fell to his knees. Cell phone cameras clicked as fans waved towels high over their heads. The noise at Citizens Bank Park was deafening.

The Phillies took over the division lead after Game 160, then fell back into a tie with Game 161, when they lost to the Nationals. An enthusiastic crowd of 44,865 -- the 24th sellout this season -- reacted to each Marlins' run on the out-of-town scoreboard. The Mets' game, which began 25 minutes earlier, ended with an 8-1 Marlins victory.

Moyer, who famously skipped school to attend the parade celebrating the 1980 World Series championship, was more than up to the challenge of shutting down a Nationals team that achieved a season goal a night before by clinching fourth place in the division.

The veteran lefty pitched around a one-out double in the first and got the Phillies to the dugout. Jimmy Rollins added to his NL Most Valuable Player candidacy by stroking a leadoff single off Jason Bergmann, swiping second and third and streaking home on a medium liner to right field by Chase Utley.

Phillies, 1-0.

Moyer provided a slow death to a lineup of aggressive fastball hitters, dancing through five innings. Washington's only run came courtesy of a Greg Dobbs error. Ronnie Belliard reached on that play and scored on an Austin Kearns single.

The rest of the afternoon on Fan Appreciation Sunday belonged to the suffering fans, who nearly got their wish over the past two seasons. More than three million (3,108,325) came to watch 81 home games this season, and delighted with each offering.

Raucous from pitch No. 1 -- a swinging strike by Felipe Lopez -- the rally towels waved throughout the 75-degree day, perfect by any standards.

Ryan Howard padded the lead to 3-0 with a bases-loaded, two-run single in the third, and Philadelphia added two more in the sixth. Howard also homered in the seventh. Moyer left to a thunderous ovation in the sixth, and Tom Gordon received some more accolades when he ended the inning with a double play.

Party hard, Phillies fans, for a relentless team that roared back from seven games back on Sept. 12 to overtake the Mets, who couldn't get out of their own way. Philadelphia went 13-3 in its final 16 games, while New York went 5-12.

Go on, Philadelphia. Spray champagne, smoke a cigar and buy a T-shirt that says "National League East Champions." Celebrate.

>>PhiladelphiaPhillies.com

Phillies Win! Screw the Muts!

Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell hit two-run home runs and rookie Kyle Kendrick pitched six solid innings, as the Philadelphia Phillies moved into a tie for the NL East lead with a 6-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves.

Jeff Francoeur greeted Phillies closer Brett Myers with a leadoff homer in the ninth and Matt Diaz reached base on a one-out single. Myers, however, got pinch-hitter Yunel Escobar to line out and then struck out Kelly Johnson to move Philadelphia into a first-place tie with the reeling New York Mets, who lost 3-0 to St. Louis on Thursday.

The Phillies, who were seven games back of the first-place Mets as recently as September 12, have not reached the postseason since 1993.

Philadelphia hosts Washington to close out the season this weekend, while the Mets have three games at home against Florida.

Howard hit his 44th home run of the season while Kendrick (10-4) gave up three runs on six hits for the Phillies, who have won 11 of their last 14. Myers escaped trouble in the ninth for his 21st save of the season.

Braves starter John Smoltz (14-8) was tagged for seven hits and six runs -- five earned -- through just four innings of work. The right-hander did strike out eight without walking a batter.

Chipper Jones and Mark Teixeira hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning for Atlanta.

Philadelphia took advantage of a pair of fielding errors by Atlanta in the first inning to jump out to a 4-0 lead.

Jimmy Rollins started the inning with a single and Shane Victorino followed with a perfectly-placed bunt down the left line. Smoltz tried to make a play on the ball but his throw sailed wide as Rollins scored and Victorino reached third.

Chase Utley ripped a line drive that bounced off the glove Teixeira, allowing Victorino to cross home plate. Ryan Howard then stepped to the plate and smoked a 2-2 offering from Smoltz into the right field bleachers to make it 4-0.

The Phillies added to their lead in third as Aaron Rowand reached base on a two-out double and Burrell connected on his 30th home run of the season to make it 6-0.

Kendrick, meanwhile, tossed five shutout innings before running into trouble in the sixth. Edgar Renteria singled with one out and Jones followed with his 29th home run of the season to get Atlanta on the board. Teixeira's 30th homer of the season brought the Braves within three, but Kendrick retired the next two batters to end the inning.

Game Notes

With a third inning strikeout at the hands of Smoltz, Howard struck out for the 196th time this season, setting the major's single-season strikeout record. Cincinnati's Adam Dunn set the previous record in 2004...Smoltz hadn't allowed more than two runs in his previous four starts, going 2-0 over that span...Atlanta and Philadelphia split the season series 9-9.

>>SportsNetwork