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Marlins five homers fell Phillies

Sep 2, 2007 - 9:55 PM MIAMI (Ticker) -- The Florida Marlins tied a franchise-record with five homers - including back-to-back blasts off Kane Davis - then survived a bases-loaded rally in the ninth inning for a 7-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday.

After Philadelphia starter Adam Eaton labored through six innings, Davis started the seventh and promptly surrendered a solo home run to Hanley Ramirez that gave Florida a 6-5 lead. The next batter, Dan Uggla, followed suit by belting his 28th of the season.

Carlos Ruiz's run-scoring single in the ninth cut the deficit to one, but reliever Kevin Gregg got Jimmy Rollins to fly out to center with the bases loaded for his 28th save.

"I'm not stretching it out because I want to be a starter," joked Gregg, who threw 43 pitches in the ninth. "I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I knew I had it. It was just a matter of when it was going to happen."

Justin Miller (5-0) allowed one hit and struck out two in 1 1/3 innings to pick up the win for Florida.

Davis (0-1) allowed the two runs on three hits for Philadelphia (72-64), which fell to four games behind New York (76-60) in the National League East. The Mets completed their three-game sweep of the Braves with a 3-2 victory on Sunday.

Cody Ross added two homers and Miguel Cabrera added his 31st of the season for Florida, which also had five homers on September 11, 2006 against the New York Mets.

"The last few weeks, it's seemed like we're down 5-0, 6-0 after the first few innings," Ross said. "To keep the fight ... especially against the Phillies, a team that's dominated us all year, to do it to them now when they're needing this victory as bad as anybody - it's a big win for us.'"

The end of the game was a far cry from how it began.

Philadelphia jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the third inning. Ryan Howard's single plated Rollins, who tripled to lead off the frame. After Aaron Rowand's double scored Pat Burrell, Jayson Werth upped the ante with a two-run double of his own.

Eaton became the first Phillies pitcher to homer this season with a solo shot in the fourth. It was also the third of Eaton's career and first since May 26, 2003.

It fell apart for Philadelphia shortly thereafter.

A solo homer by Cabrera and a two-run shot by Ross cut Philadelphia's lead to 5-3 in the fourth inning.

In the fifth, Howard misplayed a routine grounder at first base, allowing pinch hitter Dontrelle Willis to score. Ross added his second homer of the day and 10th of the season to tie the game in the sixth.

"I just made some bad pitches there in the fourth inning," Eaton said. "When I didn't make good pitches, they ended up hitting them."

Eaton finished the inning before giving way to a beleaguered Phillies bullpen, which used four relievers in Florida's 12-6 victory on Saturday.

"It was a fun game to be a part of," Ross said. "When Hanley hit that home run and Uggla came up behind him and did it, it was a great feeling to be on the other end of it."

Despite winning by the long ball, Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez cautioned that his team can't afford to count on doing so.

"You can't play softball games in professional baseball," Gonzalez said.

The Phillies had come to Miami on a high after sweeping four games from the Mets at home.

"There was a big difference as far as the atmosphere goes, but at the same time we haven't held anybody the last two nights," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "They beat us. We got outplayed today. Five home runs and they were good ones. There were no cheapies."

Especially not for Uggla, who upped his season-best 27 homers of last year. He is just the second player in history to hit 25 or more homers in his first two seasons, while playing 100 games or more at second base.

"It feels great," Uggla said of his blast. "After Hanley hit his, I just wanted to go up and put pressure on him (Davis). I'm taking better swings, and it showed."