Phillies Finally Manage Marlins

After spending three years as also-rans in the NL East, the Philadelphia Phillies and Florida Marlins are building an intense rivalry.

Bobby Abreu went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and an inside-the-park homer as Philadelphia rebounded with a 9-3 win over Florida on Sunday.

After being outscored 20-2 in the first two games of the series, the first-place Phillies won for just the seventh time in 20 games to avoid the sweep. "We got our brains kicked in for two games but we avoided the sweep and that`s what counts," Phillies manager Larry Bowa said. "I don`t put any credence on this series. It`s another game. If we`re talking in the month of September obviously it`s more important."

Things got a bit testy in the bottom of the ninth. After Charles Johnson hit a solo homer for Florida, Ricky Bottalico hit Alex Gonzalez with a pitch on his left arm. Gonzalez walked toward the mound and both dugouts and bullpens emptied. There were no punches thrown.

"They fired us up after that," Marlins starter Chuck Smith said. "You don`t want to fire up a sleeping dog and that`s what they did right there. We`ll be ready to play (the Phillies) every time out."

The Phillies host the Marlins for a five-game series starting on Thursday.

Bottalico and Bowa said that the pitch that hit Gonzalez was unintentional. The shortstop was also hit by Amaury Telemaco on Saturday.

Philadelphia`s lead has dropped from eight games on June 1 to 2 1/2 over Atlanta. The Marlins, who had won eight of nine, are 3 1/2 games back.

Bruce Chen (3-4), who had one win in his previous nine starts, gave up two runs and three hits in five innings.

"Chen pitched a pretty good game and we`re human," Florida`s Mike Lowell said. "We`re not scoreboard watching yet."

The Phillies scored four runs in the fourth inning _ around a rain delay of 1 hour, 23 minutes _ to take a 5-1 lead.

"The rain delay was no excuse, we didn`t hit today," Marlins manager Tony Perez said. "You`re not going to win every game. They pitched well and hit well today."

Jimmy Rollins singled off Smith (4-3), moved to second on a balk and scored on Abreu`s single. Rollins, who also tripled twice, finished 3-for-5.

"I`ve been doing the same move all year," Smith said of the balk. "It messed up everything. After that it seemed like the rain came and it was all over."

Following the rain delay, Johnny Estrada hit a sacrifice fly, Marlon Anderson had an RBI single and Tomas Perez hit a run-scoring double off reliever Vladimir Nunez.

The Marlins made it 5-2 in the fifth on Luis Castillo`s RBI single, but the Phillies broke it open with three runs in the eighth off Braden Looper.

Burrell hit an RBI double and scored on Travis Lee`s triple. Estrada added a run-scoring single.

In the ninth, Abreu hit a line drive to left field and Cliff Floyd crashed into the wall face first as he went to backhand the ball. Abreu scored for his 13th homer.

"I thought I broke my neck, my thumb and I hit my shoulder, too," Floyd said. "I didn`t know where I was. ... I was out of it."

The Phillies took a 1-0 lead in the first when Rollins tripled and scored on Abreu`s groundout.

The Marlins tied it on doubles by Castillo and Floyd.

Notes: Floyd extended his career-best hitting streak to 18 games, which is also the longest active streak in the majors. ... Florida`s Kevin Millar went 0-for-4 to end his career-best 10-game hitting streak. ... Luis Castillo, who was 3-for-4, drove in his 17th run of the season to match his total last year. ... Abreu`s inside-the-park homer was the Phillies first since Kevin Jordan hit one on Sept. 26, 2000, at Chicago. ... Charles Johnson committed his career-high seventh passed ball.

(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Author: 6 ABC - Action News (AP)