They still need some help along the way, but the Philadelphia Phillies are making a late push toward the postseason and look to extend their winning streak to six games Tuesday versus the Miami Marlins.
The Phillies are five games off a wild card spot with 21 games to play and made it five wins in a row with Monday's 3-1 victory over the Marlins at Citizens Bank Park. Kyle Kendrick continued his recent dominance on the mound and pitched seven innings of one-run ball.
Kendrick struck out a career-best eight batters and allowed two hits, while Justin De Fratus, Jake Diekman and Antonio Bastardo held Miami to a hit the rest of the way.
"It was a team effort. (Kendrick) pitched one heck of a game. It was a big win for us," Phillies outfielder Domonic Brown said.
Brown hit a two-run homer and Michael Martinez doubled and scored a run for the Phillies, who have the best record among NL clubs at 13-4 since Aug. 23. They are 19-8 at home since late July.
Aiming to keep the Phillies on track tonight will be Roy Halladay. Just three wins shy of 200 in his career, Halladay has won three straight decisions and is 5-1 with a 3.00 earned run average in his last seven starts. The right- hander, who is trying to win 10 or more games for an eighth straight year, previously took the hill in a 6-2 win at Cincinnati last Wednesday and held the Reds to a run in 7 1/3 innings.
Halladay is 9-7 in 21 starts to go along with a 3.87 ERA this season and lost at Miami on Aug. 15, when he was touched for three runs in seven innings. He is 1-1 in two meetings with the Marlins this season and 5-4 with a 2.52 ERA in 12 career starts against them.
Miami had won three of four games entering last night's opener of a three-game series, and is 2-2 on a six-game road trip.
Wade LeBlanc was dealt the loss for giving up three runs in five innings and Donovan Solano was credited with the lone RBI for the Marlins.
"I think LeBlanc pitched a (heck) of a ballgame," Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen said. "He just had one bad pitch to the kid who hit a homer, other than that he was good."
LeBlanc hasn't won since Aug. 18 for the Marlins, who began their trip by taking two of three from the NL East-leading Washington Nationals. Giancarlo Stanton was 0-for-4 last night and had homered in six straight road games.
Nathan Eovaldi will make his ninth start with Miami tonight and is 3-5 with a 4.85 earned run average since coming over via trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Eovaldi has lost three straight starts and four of his last five trips to the mound, including an 8-5 setback to Milwaukee last Wednesday.
The Brewers reached Eovaldi for two runs in five innings, and the right-hander fell to 4-11 with a 4.44 ERA in 18 starts with both L.A. and Miami. Eovaldi has lost both of his starts against the Phillies, who got him for three runs -- two earned -- in a 4-0 win on Aug. 13.
The Marlins are still 7-6 against Philadelphia this season and have won six of the previous nine matchups between the division foes.
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