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Phillies cling to dwindling wild card hopes

Sep 29, 2006 - 1:00 PM Philadelphia (83-76) at Florida (77-82) 7:09 pm EDT

MIAMI (Ticker) - The Philadelphia Phillies need to be all business on their final weekend trip to South Florida this season.

Veteran lefthander Jamie Moyer will be called upon to get the Phillies off to a winning start Friday as they open a crucial three-game series against the Florida Marlins.

Philadelphia has dropped three of its last four outings and trails the Los Angeles Dodgers by two games in the National League wild card race with three contests remaining.

The 43-year-old Moyer (4-2, 4.27 ERA) is 10-14 overall this season, including a pair of victories over the Marlins this month. He yielded five runs and eight hits against Florida on Monday.

After a 4 1/2-hour rain delay, the Phillies managed just five hits in Thursday's 3-1 loss to the Washington Nationals.

Philadelphia has won 10 of the 15 encounters against Florida and will turn to Ryan Howard to continue his power hitting. Already with 58 home runs this year, he is batting .565 (26-for-46) with nine homers and 20 RBI against the Marlins in 2006.

Brian Moehler (7-10, 6.22) took the loss against the Phillies on Sunday after surrendering four runs and eight hits in 3 1/3 innings. Winless since August 25, he has been a spot starter following Josh Johnson's season-ending forearm injury.

Miguel Cabrera is hitting .340, four points behind Pittsburgh's Freddy Sanchez for the NL batting title. He recorded two of Florida's four hits in Thursday's 5-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.