Phillies 7, Cubs 5
Placido Polanco belted a grand slam and Roy Halladay turned in seven scoreless innings to become baseball's first nine-game winner this season as the Philadelphia Phillies held on for a 7-5 victory over the visiting Chicago Cubs on Friday.
Rookie Domonic Brown added a two-run shot for the Phillies, who bounced back after an extra-inning loss in Thursday’s series opener.
With the loss, the Cubs failed to secure their first three-game winning streak of the season.
Philadelphia got to Carlos Zambrano (5-4) for a run in the first and two more in the second when Brown launched his second homer to right. Zambrano kept the Phillies off the board from there until the seventh, when he quickly loaded the bases on three walks - one intentional - with one out.
Polanco got a 2-0 pitch up and over the plate and broke the game open, smashing his 100th career home run into the stands in left.
Halladay (9-3) struck out nine and yielded six hits without walking a batter to win his third straight start.
Chicago got back into it in the eight with five runs off the Philadelphia bullpen before Michael Stutes came on to secure the final two outs with the tying run on first.
Antonio Bastardo struck out Carlos Pena for the final out to pick up his second save of the season.