Phillies' Ryan Howard fuels win at Miami

MIAMI - It's unknown if there were any broken bats or thrown helmets littered in the visiting dugout at Marlins Park yesterday afternoon, but Ryan Howard was not a happy person when he struck out for the second time in as many at-bats to begin the day against Jarred Cosart.

He was angry. He was consoled by hitting coach Steve Henderson, who simply told him, "keep battling."

The frustration helped fuel the Phillies' come-from-behind win.

Howard launched a game-tying triple in the sixth inning and added a run-scoring single in the seventh as the Phillies beat the Marlins, 6-2, ending a five-game losing streak and avoiding a three-game sweep in Miami.

"I think there was a little bit of anger behind [those swings]," manager Ryne Sandberg said. "I think he turned it up a notch in those at-bats . . . He took his aggression out on the baseball."

After swinging through a changeup on a 3-2 pitch from Cosart, Howard had begun the three-game series hitless in nine at-bats, with six of those ending in strikeouts. Howard had entered the series with just five strikeouts in his previous nine games.

" 'Hendu' kind of picked me up, gave me some words and kind of picked me up," Howard said. "It was a tough series. I had problems kind of getting my rhythm, getting comfortable in the box. It's a strange game, man. It's like one minute it's there, one minute it's not."

Keep battling, as Henderson said.

"I mean, it's basic," Howard said. "Sometimes that's all you need."

Howard and the Phillies' late-arriving offense - they had been shut out for 18 straight innings entering the fifth inning - not only helped end their five-game skid but it also gave rookie righthander Severino Gonzalez his first big-league win. Gonzalez bounced back from a rough major league debut in St. Louis by holding the Marlins to two runs in five innings.

"He was commanding his pitches, hitting his spots," Sandberg said.

"My location was a lot better," Gonzalez said through interpreter and first base coach Juan Samuel. "I used my changeup more this time than in St. Louis. I didn't really get a chance to use my secondary pitches [in St. Louis], but here my location was good and my changeup was really working for me."

Gonzalez was optioned to Triple A Lehigh Valley last night. The Phillies don't need a fifth starter until May 12, and Chad Billingsley is set to make his first start of the season tomorrow night in Atlanta.

Gonzalez, tagged for seven runs on 10 hits in 2 2/3 innings in St. Louis, looked much more sure of himself.

After walking the first batter he faced, Ichiro Suzuki, and then watching him steal two bases and score on a sacrifice fly, Gonzalez settled in and had his way with the Marlins. He didn't walk another batter, while striking out five, and held Miami to four singles (two that never left the infield) before Jhonatan Solano's run-scoring double in the fifth.

Solano's hit briefly gave the Marlins a 2-1 lead. In the next half inning, Cosart plunked Darin Ruf and Howard followed by ripping an elevated 2-0 pitch from into the open spaces in the massive Marlins Park outfield. Grady Sizemore kept the inning going and gave the Phillies the lead for good by knocking Howard in with a single.

When Howard came back around in the seventh and knocked in another run, it marked just the second time in 26 games the Phillies scored more than four runs on the same day their starting pitcher held the opponent to fewer than three earned runs.

"It was a good combination," Sandberg said.

"It's great," Howard said. "This is the kind of game you want to try to build off of, especially coming here to Miami and having those guys take the first two games. This is one that you definitely need and want to try to build off of going into the next series."

Sizemore, who was in the lineup for the third straight game after sitting out eight straight, went 2-for-5. It was his first multihit game of the season; he hit safely in all three starts in Miami.

Ben Revere, celebrating his 27th birthday, made a rare start in his old position in centerfield. He collected his first three-hit game of the season.

Cesar Hernandez, starting at shortstop for Freddy Galvis, stole a base and scored two runs.

Sandberg wrote out a lineup that had two of his best hitters this season, Galvis and Odubel Herrera, on the bench for a day of rest and with four straight hitters in the middle of his lineup - Chase Utley, Ruf, Howard and Sizemore - hitting below the Mendoza line.

Thanks to a little anger, it still produced a victory.

"You've just got to dig deep and just keep battling," Howard said.