Phillies top Marlins in the 10th inning

MIAMI - In anticipation of Friday's opening of "42," the inspirational sports biopic of Hall of Famer and civil-rights activist Jackie Robinson, Phillies centerfielder Ben Revere said he first heard stories of baseball's first African-American player of the modern era from his grandfather.

John Henry Revere IV told young Ben about Robinson's game-changing speed.

"I'm still waiting to steal home one time, so I can show my grandpa I can do it," Revere said. "Hopefully, one of these days I will."

For the third time this week, the Phils had an opportunity on Friday for baseball's greatest theft: a steal of home.

With Ryan Howard batting and the Marlins playing a dramatic defensive shift against him – with the third baseman playing just to the left of second base – both Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley took decent leads off third, but didn't test the Marlins battery.

On Friday, Revere was 90 feet from home when Howard stepped in against the Marlins with two outs in the first inning. A stolen base attempt, a very big lead or – gasp! – a bunt by Howard might have kept the opposition honest, combat the shift and open up the field.

"Steal home? That's something we can think about, but we aren't going to tell anybody," manager Charlie Manuel laughed afterward. "That can be an option, yeah. ... That's definitely worth a try."

Revere swiped 74 bases in the last two seasons with the Minnesota Twins, but, like Rollins and Utley before him, didn't risk running with one of the game's best RBI men at bat. Howard grounded out. The inning ended.

Nine innings later, Revere had to do three times as much running but still found home plate with the game-winning run in the Phillies 3-1 win.

In the tenth inning, after Revere reached with a single, Utley ripped a two-out triple to right off Jon Rauch to score Revere with the go-ahead run. Michael Young added an RBI single for insurance and Jonathan Papelbon shut the Marlins down in the bottom half of the inning to secure the win.

The triple was the second of the season for Utley, who has reached base in each of the Phillies first 10 games. Utley is hitting .316 (12-for-38) with six extra-base hits.

"He smoked it, really," Manuel said of the game-winning hit. "He's played good, he's run good. Of course we need him, we need him to have a big season."

The Phillies (5-5) have won three straight. More could be coming, with two more games against the Marlins this weekend.

Miami entered its 10th game of the season with baseball's worst record: 1-9. This was not altogether surprising since the Marlins shipped off just about every recognizable player – Hanley Ramirez, Josh Johnson, Jose Reyes, etc. – in embarrassing, money-saving trades in the last 9 months.

A collection of former Phillies castoffs are included in Miami's current roster, including Friday's starting corner infielders, Placido Polanco and Greg Dobbs, and left fielder Juan Pierre. Polanco and Dobbs have rotated as the team's primary cleanup hitter and Chad Qualls – yes, that Chad Qualls – is in the Marlins bullpen.

Still, the Marlins sent out their longest tenured player, veteran Ricky Nolasco, to pitch on Friday night. And Nolasco matched Phillies fifth starter John Lannan with zeros for the game's first five innings.

"I think Lannan did a heck of a job," Manuel said. "When John can give us six or seven innings, he's done his job."

The offense hadn't helped Lannan until his final inning of the night.

The Phils' bats finally cracked Nolasco in the sixth, when Howard crushed his second long double of the game with one out and Domonic Brown followed two batters later with a double to left. Brown's sixth RBI of the season was a pretty piece of hitting: buried 1-2 in the count, he took a fastball out on the outer half from Nolasco and ripped it down the leftfield line.

The Phillies' 1-0 lead was short-lived, thanks to two of the aforementioned former Phils.

Lannan, who hadn't allowed a run in 10 of his first 12 innings of 2013, hit Pierre with one out in the sixth. Two batters later, Polanco punched an RBI single to left to tie the game.

Antonio Bastardo and Mike Adams took over for Lannan in the seventh and eighth, respectively, and kept the game that way. Bastardo, who has struck out 35 of the last 78 batters he's faced dating back to last season, struck out the side before Adams survived a tricky eighth with a doubleplay.

Phillippe Aumont, who hadn't pitched in five games, gamely worked a scoreless ninth by erasing a walk with an inning-ending doubleplay, too.

After the Phillies stranded seven runners in the game's first nine innings – including five runners in scoring position – Revere reached and Utley cashed in.

"I figured the law of averages would catch up with us and knock someone in from second," Manuel joked.

Papelbon worked a 1-2-3 inning in the ninth to record his second save in as many games.

On Twitter: @ryanlawrence21

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