WPPA / T-102 RADIO SPORTS / Friday

READING PHILLIES:

Reading, Pa. -- Gary Burnham did all he could Thursday night to keep the power on at FirstEnergy Stadium. However, circumstances beyond his control pulled the plug on the Phillies' recent surge, and they fell to the Trenton Thunder 4-2.
Twin Valley grad Nick Mattioni struck out the side in a perfect ninth.
With the Phillies (54-55) down 1-0 in the fourth, Burnham slugged his eighth home run, a solo shot that tied him for the team lead with Joey Hammond. Then, leading off the ninth, Burnham went yard again. Not only did it give him the team lead, but it also was his career 49th homer as a Phillie, tying him with Aaron Royster for third on the all-time list.
The two RBIs also vaulted the veteran lefty past Hammond for the team RBI lead at 45. He has knocked in 34 runs over his last 32 games, and is batting .328 overall since joining the team May 24 from indy ball.
The game was a pitcher's duel for six innings between J.A. Happ and the Thunder's Matt Childers, each surrendering a run.
Happ was terrific through six, allowing three hits. Then, with one out in the seventh, he seemed to tire. Justin Christian began the rally with a single. Jason Brown walked. With Grant Plumley at the plate, Christian stole his league-high 51st base, narrowly beating Jason Jaramillo's throw with a headfirst slide. Happ proceeded to hit Plumley with a pitch on a 3-2 count, loading the bases. Then, on his first pitch to No. 9 hole hitter Matt Carson, a fastball got away from Happ and plunked Carson on the helmet, which plated the go-ahead run.
Nick Evangelista came on in relief at that point, and after getting the second out on a fly ball to shallow left, he gave up a two-run single to right by Vince Faison, who extended his hitting streak to seven games.
Happ (5-2) pitched much better than his line would indicate. He allowed four runs on four hits, with three wallks and seven strikeouts. It was one of those walks and two straight hit batters that did him in.
In the meantime, Childers (1-1), who began the season in Triple-A, was outstanding in his fourth start with the Thunder (59-51), shutting down a lineup that had scored 29 runs during a five-game winning streak. The right-hander allowed a run on five hits, with two walks and six strikeouts.

The Reading Phillies play at Harrisburg tonight...Game-time 6:35pm.


Thursday's major league scores

AMERICAN LEAGUE
N.Y. Yankees 8 Toronto Blue Jays 1
Cleveland Indians 7 Boston Red Sox 6
Tampa Bay Devil Rays 2 Detroit Tigers 1
Minnesota Twins 8 Kansas City Royals 2
Texas Rangers 7 L.A. Angels 6, 12 innings

NATIONAL LEAGUE
Pittsburgh Pirates 3 Atlanta Braves 2
Arizona Diamondbacks 10 Chicago Cubs 2, 1st game
Chicago Cubs 7 Arizona Diamondbacks 3, 2nd game
San Diego Padres 5 Houston Astros 2
Florida Marlins 4 N.Y. Mets 1
L.A. Dodgers 3 Cincinnati Reds 0
Philadelphia Phillies 8 St. Louis Cardinals 1

Today's pitching probables and 2006 records (all times EDT)

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Cleveland Indians(Cliff Lee 9-8) at Detroit Tigers (Jeremy Bonderman 11-5), 7:05 p.m.
New York Yankees (Randy Johnson 11-9) at Baltimore Orioles (Bruce Chen 0-6), 7:05 p.m.
Chicago White Sox (Jon Garland 11-3) at Toronto Blue Jays (Roy Halladay 13-2), 7:07 p.m.
Boston Red Sox (Curt Schilling 13-4) at Tampa Bay Devil Rays (James Shields 4-5), 7:15 p.m.
Minnesota Twins (Johan Santana 12-5) at Kansas City Royals (Mark Redman 7-6), 8:10 p.m.
Oakland Athletics (Barry Zito 11-7) at Seattle Mariners (Jarrod Washburn 5-10), 10:05 p.m.
Texas Rangers (Vicente Padilla 10-7) at Los Angeles Angels (John Lackey 10-6), 10:05 p.m.

NATIONAL LEAGUE
Pittsburgh Pirates (Tom Gorzelanny 1-2) at Chicago Cubs (Carlos Zambrano 12-3), 2:20 p.m.
Atlanta Braves (Chuck James 4-2) at Cincinnati Reds (Aaron Harang 11-7), 7:10 p.m.
Philadelphia Phillies (Randy Wolf 0-0) at New York Mets (Orlando Hernandez 7-8), 7:10 p.m. Los Angeles Dodgers (Derek Lowe 8-7) at Florida Marlins (Anibal Sanchez 4-1), 7:35 p.m.
Milwaukee Brewers (Doug Davis 6-6) at St. Louis Cardinals (Chris Carpenter 10-5), 8:10 p.m.
Houston Astros (Roy Oswalt 8-7) at Arizona Diamondbacks (Miguel Batista 9-5), 9:40 p.m.
Washington Nationals (Ramon Ortiz 7-9) at San Diego Padres (Chris Young 9-4), 10:05 p.m.
Colorado Rockies (Jeff Francis 8-9) at San Francisco Giants (Matt Morris 8-8), 10:15 p.m.

W-N-B-A
Thursday's Scores
Indiana 69 Minnesota 59
Connecticut 72 Los Angeles 63
New York 75 Detroit 67
Sacramento 87 San Antonio 69
Seattle 86 Washington 78
Phoenix 112 Charlotte 84

Today
Houston at Minnesota, 8 p.m. Detroit at Chicago, 8:30 p.m.