Howard hits first homer as Phillies sink Marlins

Marlins outfielder Marcell Ozuna halfheartedly leaped in front of the center-field wall, to no avail. Ryan Howard rounded first base as Dan Haren's belt-high splitter found a home in the Citizens Bank Park bushes.

Howard's first home run of the season - a two-run shot in the sixth inning - fueled the Phillies to a 7-3 win against the Miami Marlins on Tuesday night. The beleaguered first baseman snapped a streak of 52 homerless plate appearances dating to last September.

The win was just the Phillies' second in their last nine games. In their 14th game, their seven runs signified the first time they scored more than five.

Howard's homer came on the first pitch of his third plate appearance against Haren, the Marlins' veteran righthander. The tying and go-ahead runs atoned for Howard's fifth-inning error that allowed Miami to take a 3-2 lead. Howard, who entered the night with just seven hits in 40 at-bats, also singled and walked.

"It feels great," Howard said. "It's definitely something to try to build on going into [Wednesday]. You do just that. You just try to build on it."

Howard batted sixth in manager Ryne Sandberg's lineup on Tuesday. Sandberg dropped the longtime cleanup hitter to seventh for three consecutive games from Thursday to Saturday. He batted fifth on Sunday.

Ben Revere, in the No. 2 hole for the first time this season, smacked a two-run triple in the seventh to give the Phillies (5-9) some insurance runs. Freddy Galvis provided the game's first two runs in the second inning when he lined a home run into the right-field seats. The shortstop has driven in at least a run in each of the last five games and has hit safely in nine of the last 11.

"It's good to see the crooked numbers on the offensive side of things," Sandberg said.

Jerome Williams (1-1) earned his first win of the season after allowing three runs, two earned, over a solid six innings. He allowed eight hits, including an estimated 453-foot home run by Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton that bounced in the visitors' bullpen.

"When he made contact, I didn't know it was going to go," Williams said. "Then when the ball passed me at probably 100 miles an hour, then I saw it go and I turned around like, 'Oh, boy. That's a big one.' "

Marlins shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria gave his team the lead an inning later when he scored on Howard's fielding error. It was Miami's final run. Righthanders Luis Garcia, Ken Giles and Jonathan Papelbon combined for three scoreless innings out of the Phillies bullpen.

Chase Utley's sacrifice fly capped the scoring in a three-run seventh. Despite the RBI - Utley's team-leading ninth, with a league-leading three sacrifice flies - the veteran second baseman's struggles at the plate continued. Haren caught him looking at strike three in each of his first two at-bats, and he is hitless in his 21 at-bats since his two-homer game the previous Tuesday in New York. His average dipped to a woeful .109 (5 for 46).

Howard's two hits bumped his average to .209 (9 for 43). He scored his first two runs of the year on Tuesday.

"I'm going up there and I'm trying to have good at-bats," he said. "Hopefully it does turn it on. We'll see. I'm just going to continue to try to have the same approach I had tonight and go from there."