The Phillies will defend their World Series championship this October as they won their third straight National League East division title with an 10-3 win over the Houston Astros at Citizen’s Bank Park Wednesday.

The game was started by Pedro Martinez, who threw 84 pitches through four innings, allowing three earned runs. He got into trouble early, loading the bases in the first inning. But he managed to get out of trouble relatively unscathed, only allowing one run in the inning. He was lifted after four innings as a precaution. He left his last start early with stiffness in his neck.

The biggest story of the night belonged to the bullpen, who threw a combined five scoreless innings. Kyle Kendrick replaced Martinez and continued pitching like the 2007 pitcher that went 10-4 with a 3.87 ERA. Kendrick pitched three scoreless innings, allowing just two base runners while striking out four. He continues to look like he has turned things around from a rocky 2008 and is making a case to be on the big league squad in 2010.

Chad Durbin replaced Kendrick for a scoreless eighth inning. It was the fourth straight scoreless outing by Durbin, who ran into some trouble in Atlanta in the middle of this month.

Scott Eyre, who is fresh off the disabled list and looking to prove that he is healthy enough to make the postseason roster, got the first two outs of the ninth inning. Eyre’s last appearance was back on September 7 in Houston. He led the inning off by getting former Phillies center fielder Michael Bourn to pop out to current center fielder Victorino on the first pitch. Shortstop Miguel Tejada followed that up with a pop fly to deep center field, pushing Victorino all the way to the warning track.

Then, in a surprising, and truly touching move by manager Charlie Manuel, closer Brad Lidge was brought in to face the final batter, Lance Berkman. It took Lidge just one pitch to seal the game, as Berkman grounded out to first baseman Ryan Howard. It was a moving show of faith by Manuel in his beleaguered closer.

The Phillies offense made sure that they supplied their pitchers with enough run support to seal the division. Led by Raul Ibanez, who hit his career best 34th home run of the season, the Phillies pounded five Houston pitchers for 10 runs on nine hits. Ibanez ended the night with three RBIs, two runs scored, a home run and a walk. Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino each scored their 100th run of the season, and backed that up with a triple each. Not to be left out, Pedro Feliz, consistently the best player on the team with runners in scoring position, and Carlos Ruiz, playing for the first time in a week after spraining his wrist in Atlanta, each added their own double. Rollins, the lead off hitter, was the only starting position player not to have an RBI on the night.

In the end, none of the solid pitching or timely hitting mattered, as the division was sealed for the Phillies when the Florida Marlins beat the Braves 5-3 in Atlanta. The loss officially put the Braves out of contention for the division title.

The Phillies have won the division three years in a row, making Manuel the first manager in team history to do so since Danny Ozark’s teams did so from 1976-1978.