Pirate Galaxy » to the wire by North Carolina Central and Tex

PHILADELPHIA -- Five years is a long time between wins. Thats why this one meant so much to reliever Frank Herrmann.Pinch-hitter Jimmy Paredes singled home the winning run with one out in the 13th inning to give Herrmann and the Philadelphia Phillies a 4-3 victory over Miami on Friday night, dropping the Marlins (73-74) five games behind the New York Mets for the second NL wild card.Herrmann, who spent much of the season pitching in the minors for Philadelphia, tossed two scoreless innings and earned his first major league win since 2011.Its nice to contribute, Herrmann said. Things havent gone as well as I would have hoped since being up here, but I feel like on the whole this season Ive thrown the ball pretty well, so its nice to express that.Ryan Howard homered to spark a three-run rally for the Phillies in the sixth. Cameron Rupp and Odubel Herrera hit back-to-back doubles to tie the game, and Herrera scored on an RBI groundout by Aaron Altherr.Derek Dietrich pulled the Marlins even with his first career pinch-hit homer in the eighth, connecting off Edubray Ramos.Obviously, our guys really battled tonight, but when you get to the root of it, we left a lot of people out there, Miami manager Don Mattingly said. We left some guys out there with sacrifice-fly situations or if someone hits a ball in a gap there somewhere, you put a game like this away. We just werent able to do it.Herrmann (1-2) had not won in the big leagues since pitching four innings in relief during a 16-inning game for the Cleveland Indians on Aug. 31, 2011.The last three of his five career wins have come in extra innings.Herrmann said his teammates in the minors were calling him The Snake because a handful of times he would sneak into games in extra innings and steal the win.To get wins like this mean a lot to me, he said.It was the longest game of the season for the Phillies, both in innings and time of game (4 hours, 43 minutes). But it was worth the wait for Paredes, who got his chance with the bases loaded in the 13th.With the Marlins playing five infielders to try and cut down a run at home plate, Paredes lined a pinch-hit single off A.J. Ramos (1-3) to right field, scoring Peter Bourjos.I took advantage of that defense, Paredes said. I noticed there was nobody in center field, so I just tried to put the ball in play in the middle.Philadelphias bullpen did a fine job in relief of starter Adam Morgan. The relievers allowed just one run in 8 2/3 innings. Morgan was lifted after 4 2/3 innings. He gave up two unearned runs, seven hits and two walks.Martin Prado had three hits, two doubles and an RBI for Miami. Dee Gordon got three hits and stole two bases.Bourjos opened the bottom of the 13th with a single and went to third on Herreras one-out single. Freddy Galvis walked to load the bases, and Paredes lined a single over the drawn-in infield.The teams struggled to get runners home and also had difficulty making contact at times. They combined to leave 24 runners on base and struck out a combined 30 times.The Marlins left the bases loaded in the 11th inning and left two runners on base four other times in the game.Likely playing in his final few games with the Phillies in front of the home crowd, Howard connected leading off the sixth. He tied Maikel Franco for the team lead with his 22nd home run.Hopefully, he can continue over the last 14 games, Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. Not that he is going to play every game, but its good to see him do that -- and its good for the fans.Howard also pulled even with Tony Perez and Orlando Cepeda for 70th place on the career list with homer No. 379.Rupp followed with a double that chased Marlins starter Tom Koehler. Herrera tied the game with a double off reliever Mike Dunn.STATSPrado is hitting .318 against the Phillies this season with eight doubles and eight RBI. ... Koehler made his 30th start, joining Dontrelle Willis and Scott Olsen as the only Marlins pitchers to reach that plateau in three consecutive seasons. ... Morgan did not allow an earned run, the 14th straight start by a Phillies pitcher in which they yielded three runs or fewer. Thats the longest streak for Philadelphia since a 17-game stretch in July 2000. ... Galvis has gone 50 consecutive games without an error. He leads NL shortstops in fielding percentage (.996) since the All-Star break.TRAINERS ROOMMarlins: OF Giancarlo Stanton made his first start since a groin injury on Aug. 9. He had made five pinch-hit appearances since returning last week. With the team limiting his innings, Stanton went 0 for 2 with two walks and grounded into a double play before being replaced in the sixth.Phillies: Top prospect J.P. Crawford, thought to be a candidate for a September call-up, had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee to remove loose bodies. The team said Crawford is expected to be ready for spring training.UP NEXTMarlins RHP Jose Urena (4-6, 4.89 ERA) opposes Phillies RHP Jeremy Hellickson (11-9, 3.76) on Saturday night. Eppa Rixey Jersey . 1 position. The Mustangs (6-0), who beat Queens 50-31 last weekend, earned 17 first-place votes and 287 points in voting by the Football Reporters of Canada. Western was last ranked first in the country in October 2011. Bobby Abreu Jersey . Pence singled in the winning run with no outs in the ninth inning to give the Giants a 7-6 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday. https://www.cheapphilliesjerseys.us/157n-bob-boone-jersey-phillies.html .J. -- Marty Brodeur beat the Pittsburgh Penguins yet again. Jonathan Papelbon Jersey .R. Smith realized how easily basketball can be taken from him, and he wasnt going to take his place in the NBA for granted anymore. Cole Irvin Jersey . Coach Tom Thibodeau says the former MVP will probably start travelling with the team in the next few weeks. Rose tore the meniscus in his right knee at Portland in November and was ruled out for the remainder of the season by the Bulls. BATON ROUGE, La. -- Duop Reath scored 21 points and LSU made six straight free throws in the final minute to hold off Texas Southern 88-80 in a non-conference game Saturday.LSU (7-2), which fell behind by five points in the second half, took the lead for good on a field goal by Reath with 6:37 remaining. Texas Southern (4-7), which has lost six games in a row, came within one point on three occasions over the next five minutes.With LSU ahead 80-79, Antonio Blakeney sank a pair of foul shots with 58 seconds remaining. Both Reath and Jalyn Patterson made two free throws to put LSU comfortably ahead. Texas Southern did not make a field goal in the final 1:56 of the game.All but two of Reaths 21 points came in the second half. Craig Victor II had the third double-double of his career with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Blakeney added 16 points, while Patterson scored a season-high 12 points. Brandon Sampson contributed 10 points for LSU.Both Zach Lofton and Demontrae Jefferson had 18 points for Texas Southern. Jefferson scored 17 of his points after halftime. Derrick Griffinn accounted for 13 points and 15 rebounds, while Marvin Jones scored 10 points.ddddddddddddIG PICTURELSU: The Tigers, who have struggled in the first half in the previous eight games, blew a double-digit halftime advantage against Texas Southern. LSU was taken down to the wire by North Carolina Central and Texas Southern before winning by four and eight points, respectively, in its last two home games.TEXAS SOUTHERN: Texas Southerns losing streak continued, but it played much more competitively against a power conference opponent. Texas Southern had been beaten by 22 points by Arizona and 31 points by Louisville. In its previous game, Texas Southern lost by 38 points to Cincinnati.UP NEXTLSU: LSU will attempt to extend its season-opening home winning streak to seven games when it takes on Charleston on Monday.TEXAS SOUTHERN: Texas Southern will play its 12th consecutive road game of the season Sunday when it meets TCU in Fort Worth (Tex.). ' ' '