April 23 -- BURRELL MAKES 'EM PAY

DENVER -- Pity Clint Hurdle.

With his team leading 6-5 in the ninth inning last night, and the Phillies threatening with runners on second and third and one out, the Rockies manager was faced with an impossible decision. Either he could have closer Manny Corpas pitch to slumping Ryan Howard, or he could order that Corpas walk Howard to pitch to sizzling Pat Burrell.

Flip a coin.

Hurdle made the move that most managers would've made. He walked Howard, setting up a possible game-ending double play and a righty-on-righty matchup between Burrell and Corpas. But, except for Chase Utley, there's been no hotter hitter in the Phillies' lineup -- and perhaps in the entire National League -- than Burrell. And even after falling behind 0-2, Burrell waited for a fastball from Corpas and jerked a bases-clearing double to center field that gave the Phils an 8-6 victory.

"Against a sinker-ball guy, the approach is to just try to get something you can elevate," Burrell said. "A ground ball is not good because that's a double play. Fortunately, I hung around long enough to get something to hit. In that situation, the pressure is really on the pitcher. Not that there's not pressure on the hitter. But he's got to execute pitches.

"When I hit it, I thought, 'Oh cool, a sacrifice fly.' But it seemed like the ball hung up there quite a bit."

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Stop the presses: The Phillies have won three straight games for the first time this season, and at 11-10, they're over .500 in April for the first time since April 21, 2005.

"Usually, that happens in June," Burrell said.

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So, in a few hours, it's on to Milwaukee. We'll have more from Miller Park tomorrow, including the return of Geoff Jenkins to the city in which he played for the past 10 seasons. For now, though, here's a look at the matchups for the series.

PHILLIES (11-10) at BREWERS (12-8)
Tonight, 8:05: LHP Cole Hamels (2-2, 1.86) vs. RHP Dave Bush (0-3, 7.02)
Thursday, 1:05: LHP Jamie Moyer (1-1, 4.79) vs. RHP Jeff Suppan (1-0, 4.13)
Hot: Phillies LF Pat Burrell leads the National League with 22 RBIs; Phillies 2B Chase Utley led the NL in home runs (nine), extra-base hits (18), slugging percentage (.823) and total bases (65) entering Tuesday night's game; Brewers LF Ryan Braun, last season's NL Rookie of the Year, has four hits in his last nine at-bats; Brewers OF Gabe Kapler is batting .382 this season after coming out of retirement.
Not: Phillies 3B Pedro Feliz had one hit in his last 15 at-bats before picking up three hits Tuesday night; Phillies 1B Ryan Howard has struck out at least once in eight straight games; Brewers 1B Prince Fielder has only one homer through 20 games; Brewers 2B Rickie Weeks has three hits in his last 19 at-bats.