DENVER -- Philadelphia Phillies starter Adam Morgan was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley after another rocky outing.Manager Pete Mackanin broke the news to the 26-year-old left-hander in the clubhouse after the Phillies fell to the Colorado Rockies 11-2 on Thursday night.You never like to send anybody out, said Mackanin following a 40-minute meeting with Morgan. He knows what he has to do to improve. I believe hes going to improve.Morgan (1-7) allowed six runs on nine hits in five innings and dropped to 0-7 in his last nine starts.Morgan gave up runs in the first three innings, starting with Nolan Arenados RBI double in the first.Reynolds then led off the second with his ninth home run, and in the third, with LeMahieu and Carlos Gonzalez aboard, Story drove a 3-2 offering from Morgan into the left-field bleachers for his first homer of the game and a 5-1 Rockies lead.Story put the Rockies up 6-2 in the fifth with his second homer of the game.To me lately it hasnt been fun, Morgan said. Ive been putting a lot of pressure on myself. This break coming up I feel like will be good. And also going down (to Triple-A) and being able to work on things and not feel so much pressure ... it can really go up from here.Ryan Howard homered in the second, his 12th of the season and 369th of his career to tie Ralph Kiner and former Rockies first baseman Todd Helton for 78th place on the career list. Maikel Franco doubled and singled but had his home run streak snapped at four games.Story, one of five players on the ballot for the last NL All-Star spot, joined Dave Kingman (1972) and Albert Pujols (2001) as the only NL rookies to hit 21 home runs prior to the break.Chad Bettis (7-6) allowed two runs on seven hits in 6 2/3 innings for Colorado.PHILS STAY POSITVE AFTER BLOWOUT LOSSThe Phillies won five of six games on their recent homestand only to get shelled in the opener of a four-game set in Colorado.Mackanin stayed positive, looking at the bigger picture.Theres a long-term goal, and thats what this year is all about, Mackanin said. Now weve been successful, especially recently -- the first two months and then recently weve been successful. The guys are starting to swing the bats well. Were getting there little by little. Were taking baby steps. A lot of encouraging things are going on.TRAINERS ROOMPhillies: RHP Andrew Bailey (left hamstring strain) should be activated Saturday when he is eligible to be reinstated from the 15-day disabled list. ... RHP Aaron Nola, who was scratched from his scheduled start Thursday to give him a breather before the All-Star break, was scheduled to throw a two-inning simulated game Saturday.UP NEXTPhillies: RHP Vince Velasquez (7-2) has won his last two starts since being reinstated June 27 from the 15-day disabled list. He spent time on the DL because of a right biceps strain.Rockies: RHP Jon Gray (5-4) is slated to make his seventh start this season at Coors Field, where he has gone 3-0 with a 5.05 ERA.Brian Dozier Jersey . Radwanska, making her debut in the Seoul tournament, hit eight aces in a match that lasted 1 hour, 4 minutes at Olympic Park tennis stadium. "It was definitely a very good match -- I was playing really good tennis," Radwanska said. Daniel Hudson Jersey . Scott Kazmir allowed four hits in seven shutout innings, Michael Brantley hit a two-run homer in a three-run first inning and the Indians maintained their hold on an AL wild-card spot with a 4-1 win over the Houston Astros on Saturday night. https://www.cheapnationals.com/ . Michell Burger, a woman who lives on an estate next to Pistorius gated community, said she and her husband were awoken by the screams in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14 last year, when Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp by shooting four times through a door in his bathroom. Hunter Strickland Jersey .S. -- Nikolaj Ehlers registered a hat trick for the third straight game and Jonathan Drouin had a goal and five assists as the Halifax Mooseheads hammered the host Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 10-1 on Tuesday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Javy Guerra Jersey . World champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia won the gold medal with 237.71 points, Moore-Towers and Moscovitch followed at 208.45 and Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia were third at 187.PHILADELPHIA -- With the games remaining on the schedule quickly running out, each night out becomes crucial for a Miami Marlins team trying to make a late run at a National League wild-card spot.A crushing 4-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in 13 innings on Friday night halted a run of five wins in seven games, costing the team a chance to climb above .500 and instead dropping the Marlins to 73-74. That comes after a horrid 1-10 stretch from Aug. 27 to Sept. 6 that nearly ruined their playoff chances.Every one is painful from the standpoint of you know where youre at, and you have to think about winning absolutely every game, Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. Every one is tough, it hurts, you know, and thats just the way it is this time of year.If you have a team that cares and is trying to obviously fight for stuff, which I know we are, these kind of rip your heart out a little bit, but youve got to bounce back and keep playing because you still never know.Those 11 games were enough to send Miami from 1 1/2 games out of the two wild-card spots to six games back, though theyve battled back to cut that down to four games behind with 15 to play.Two teams are ahead of them for the last spot: St. Louis (76-70) is three games up on the Marlins but still two games back of the New York Mets, who remain in control of their own destiny after beating the Minnesota Twins 3-0 at home on Friday nigght.ddddddddddddMiami has three games left against New York on Sept. 26-28 but first has to navigate two more against Philadelphia and then three each against Washington and Atlanta before the Mets visit south Florida.To keep the momentum going, Mattingly will turn to Saturday night starter Jose Urena, whos coming off the best outing of his two-year professional career. Urena beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-0 and came one out shy of a complete-game shutout, pulled after 8 2/3 innings with four strikeouts and no walks.Since moving into the starting rotation in July, Urena is 3-5 with a 3.88 ERA.Philadelphia, which isnt yet officially eliminated from playoff contention for the fifth straight season -- it wont be much longer, with an elimination number of three -- sits 12 1/2 games back of the second wild-card spot.The Phillies will hand the ball on Saturday to Jeremy Hellickson, who enters with a 11-9 record and 3.76 ERA. Hes coming off a win over Pittsburgh on Sept. 12 in which he gave up one unearned run in 6 1/3 innings.In five starts against the Marlins this season, hes 2-1 with a 2.59 ERA, giving up 10 runs (nine earned) in 31 1/3 innings. His last time against them, on Sept. 7, he took the loss, giving up four runs (three earned) in six innings of a 6-0 loss. ' ' '
