Phils end scoring drought in a win

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. - Shane Victorino had seen the situation a night earlier and knew he made a mistake. The Phillies had been sitting back, waiting for the big hit during the perpetual scoreless streak.

This time, in the Phillies' 3-2 victory over Florida, he made something happen.

"The way we've been playing," Victorino said, "it's almost like you kind of want to push the envelope a little bit and make some things happen."

He did. Victorino stole third base in the seventh inning of a tie game. Chase Utley grounded out to short to score Victorino, in the eventual winning run.

And the five-game losing streak was over.

The Phillies went 30 innings without scoring a run until the third inning Friday night. They were tossed around by the Mets, who were aggressive on the basepaths, hit with runners in scoring position, and played good defense.

Maybe, Victorino said, there was a lesson learned in the three-game sweep.

"They did everything right to win," Victorino said.

On Friday, two key steals by the Phillies set up runs.

In the fifth, Utley stole second with two outs. Ryan Howard knocked him home with a single. It was just his second steal of 2010 on his third attempt.

"He'll steal about 20, and he'll steal them at the right time," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "And that was a big time. Utley knows how to play the game."

First, the Phillies had to end their scoring drought.

Howard touched home plate in the third inning, the first Phillie to do so in 30 innings and five days. As he walked back to the dugout, he rotated his fists in a circular motion, as if to say, "Keep it going."

Of course, Raul Ibanez, who had tripled Howard home, was stranded on third.

"We had a guy standing on third and nobody out," Manuel said. "I was thinking, 'Yeah, we're going to get another one.' And we didn't get it."

Well, one was good enough.

Before Ibanez's triple, the gruesome details of the slump looked like this:

30 straight scoreless innings, spanning 119 plate appearances by Phillies players in between runs.

38 innings without scoring against an opposing starter - from Daisuke Matsuzaka last Saturday to Chris Volstad on Friday.

Scoreless in 49 of 50 innings, the only runs coming off Boston mop-up man Ramon Ramirez in the ninth inning of last Sunday's game.

The Phillies tied a club record with three straight shutouts. But they avoided becoming the eighth team in major-league history to be shut out in four consecutive games.

They did become the first team to go scoreless for 30 innings since the Atlanta Braves went 31 innings without a run June 18-23, 2007.

The offensive outburst all started with Howard, whose own struggles were emblematic of the team's. Howard had been 2 for his last 19 with seven strikeouts before singling through the left side of the shift to begin the third inning.

He easily scored when Ibanez smoked a liner to center that skipped along the wet outfield grass and past Marlins centerfielder Cameron Maybin and all the way to the wall.

"We were all excited," Victorino said. "We forgot what it was like. We were shaking hands. . . . I forgot what it was like to high-five some guys."

The music blared in the visitors' clubhouse after the game. When Victorino caught the final out to end the Phillies' victory over the Marlins, closer Jose Contreras put both his arms skyward.

Finally, it was a win.

"We're definitely built to score runs and we will," Manuel said. "But you hit periods sometimes when you don't play well."