Howard set fire to Phillies’ wining confidence

There were mostly positive vibes coming from Charlie Manuel after a game he was forced to leave early.

Seeing his Phillies rally in the seventh inning on Sunday for a 4-3 victory against the Cubs turned a negative into a positive. As Manuel likes to say, winning is the end-all stat he cares about.

Take Ryan Howard's seventh-inning at-bat against Cubs left-hander Sean Marshall. One night after looking at mostly curveballs from the Marshall, Howard saw a steady diet of sliders. On the fourth consecutive slider, he smoked a single up the middle to score Shane Victorino and Chase Utley, the tying and go-ahead runs.

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