Howard ties Phillies HR mark with No. 48 in win over Nats

Aug 30, 2006, 3:10 GMT

Washington, DC - Ryan Howard equaled Philadelphia's single- season record with his 48th homer, a three-run shot in the sixth inning, to power Philadelphia to a 10-6 win over Washington in the opener of a three-game set at RFK Stadium.

Howard's homer tied him with Mike Schmidt (1980) atop the Phillies all-time single-season list. Howard also moved a homer ahead of Boston's David Ortiz for the major league lead this year.

Mike Lieberthal hit a two-run homer and Pat Burrell knocked in two runs and scored twice for the Phillies, who are tied with Cincinnati, a half-game behind San Diego for the lead in the NL wild card race.

Brett Myers (10-6) earned the win, as he allowed three runs on eight hits with a walk and seven strikeouts in six innings.

Tony Armas Jr. (8-10) was saddled with the loss after conceding five runs on eight hits in 3 1/3 innings. Ryan Zimmerman went 4-for-5 with three runs batted in for the Nationals, who have dropped eight of their last nine games. Alfonso Soriano homered for Washington.

The Phillies got to Armas right away as they loaded the bases with two outs in the first. Burrell then slapped a single back up the middle, scoring Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino, who both singled to start the inning.

Soriano cut the Nationals deficit in half, 2-1, in the third when he crushed a 3-2 offering from Myers deep over the wall in center.

However, Lieberthal followed a Burrell single with his sixth homer of the year in the fourth to give Philadelphia a 4-1 cushion. Abraham Nunez kept the inning going as he singled, moved to second on Myers' sacrifice bunt, and scored on Rollins' double down the line in right to up the Phillies' advantage to 5-1.

Zimmerman's two-run triple in the fifth pulled Washington to within 5-3, but a four-run sixth inning gave the Phillies command of the game.

A Rollins infield hit, combined with a throwing error on first baseman Nick Johnson, drove in Nunez. Victorino followed with a single and with two outs, Howard belted Kevin Gryboski's 2-2 pitch over the center-field wall for a six- run Phillies cushion.

Howard has a major league-leading 125 RBI this year.

Victorino drew a bases-loaded walk in the seventh for the Phillies before Ryan Church's run-scoring single for Washington in the eighth made it a 10-4 game.

Zimmerman ripped an RBI double in the ninth to make it 10-5, and Johnson scored Zimmerman with a single to make it 10-6, but Arthur Rhodes recorded the final out to notch his fourth save of season.

Game Notes

The Phillies tied a franchise mark set in 2004 with 39 homers in the month of August.

Philadelphia is now 26-18 since the All-Star break, the third best mark in the NL.

Zimmerman has two four-hit games this season.

Cole Hamels will take the mound for the Phillies on Wednesday while the Nationals will counter with Ramon Ortiz.

© 2006 The Sports Network