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 …

Jeremiah Trotter has officially returned to the Eagles, again.

This will be the veteran linebacker’s third go around in Philly and is a surprising twist in young season already chock full of incredible twists and surprises. It’s not surprising that Trotter wants to play again, as he has always had a hard time with the idea of hanging up the cleats, but more that the Eagles actually signed him. President Joe Banner, GM Tom Heckert, and coach Andy Reid are renowned for cutting ties with players who are on the verge of being past their prime (i.e. Brian Dawkins, Duce Staley, and Trotter).

“At some points, like last year, when I was sitting at home . . . I was like, ‘Should I give it up and start doing something else?’ Something just kept telling me to work out,” Trotter said.

The Eagles signed Trotter to a one-year deal for the veteran minimum. He will wear his familiar No. 54.

Trotter underwent surgery in 2008 to cleanout his right knee, …

The Phillies announced Friday that Pedro Martinez would skip his scheduled start on Saturday, and would be replaced by right hander Kyle Kendrick.

The announcement was made before the team’s Friday night game against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Martinez left his last start, last Friday in Atlanta, in the third inning with stiffness in his neck. He did not throw a bullpen session during the week, which is unusual for most pitchers, but not Martinez.

“A lot of times I don’t throw a bullpen,” he said. “I only need it if there is a pitch that I need to work on.”

His neck has not totally healed, obviously, but Martinez says that it is improving.

“It’s still sore, but it feels better,” he said.

He is expected to only miss Saturday’s start against the Brewers, and will pitch Thursday against the Houston Astros. The move appears to be more of a precautionary measure than a cause for alarm. With the Phillies likely to wrap up the division over the next couple days, manager …

In a somewhat surprising twist, the Eagles invited former linebacker Jeremiah Trotter to workout with the team on Thursday.

“We had a chance to work out Jeremiah yesterday and I just wanted to see where he was at,” coach Andy Reid said. “He had his knee taken care of after he left here, so I wanted to get him in here and see him move around a little bit, which I thought he did a good job with.

“I haven’t made any decisions on it one way or another, I wanted to make sure that I had a pulse of where he was at.”

By bringing Trotter in for a workout, it is clear that Reid and the Eagles’ coaching staff are not content with the defense’s current run-stopping capacity. After the loss of safety Brian Dawkins to the Denver Broncos this offseason and middle linebacker Stewart Bradley to a season ending injury suffered during training camp, the Eagles are looking for a veteran presence up the middle.

Trotter, who …

In case you were wondering how serious Brett Myers’ strained back was, see the eighth and  ninth innings of Wednesday night’s game in Florida.

Leading 6-4 coming into the eighth inning, Phillies’ manager Charlie Manuel brought Ryan Madson into the game to set the table for Brad Lidge’s entry in the ninth. A year ago, this would have been a foregone conclusion with the game in the bag.

Unfortunately, this is 2009 (or perhaps 1993), not 2008.

Madson allowed a run on a Cody Ross single to left, scoring Jorge Cantu and cutting the Phillies’ lead to a tenuous one run.

Lidge entered the ninth inning having saved his previous three attempts, despite allowing at least a run in each. Unfortunately, Lidge had zero room for error, as the Phillies failed to add any insurance runs in the top of the ninth.

The formerly Lights Out Lidge started the inning by allowing a double to backup first baseman Ross Gload, who moved to third base the following at bat on a …

The results of an MRI taken Tuesday show that Phillies pitcher Brett Myers has a Grade 1 shoulder strain of the lattissimus dorsi muscle in his upper back. This puts Myers’ status for the remainder of the season into uncertainty.

Myers will not attempt to throw again until next Tuesday, which is just five days before the end of the regular season.

A hip injury was discovered in Myers in mid-may. He underwent surgery in early June and was expected to miss the rest of the season. Myers, however, rehabbed ahead of schedule and returned to the Phillies on September 5. He pitched scoreless baseball in the first four of the five outings since his return. However, in his last time out he allowed three runs in just one third of an inning.

The strain was discovered last Sunday after the series finale in Atlanta. The plan is, according to GM Ruben Amaro, to keep Myers on the shelf until he is healthy.

On the other side of the plate, …

You almost couldn’t have picked a worse time for the injury bug to hit the Phillies clubhouse. Perhaps the first week in October might have been worse.

The news came down Sunday that Brett Myers, who recently returned to the Phillies after spending most of the season on the disabled list recovering from hip surgery, might have strained his right shoulder.

“He’s got some soreness in the back of his shoulder,” GM Ruben Amaro said. “We’ve been kind of protecting him. I guess he sustained it about eight or 10 days ago. . . . He’s scheduled to see Mike Ciccotti on Tuesday to see if there is anything very serious about it. . . . [The training staff] is saying it’s a possible strain.”

The Phillies expect to learn what the diagnosis is on Tuesday, but regardless of what the technicaly prognosis is, it appears as though the idea that Myers would be able to step into the closer’s role, solidifying the back end of the bullpen, has …

As if losing 48-22 to the New Orleans Saints wasn’t bad enough, the Eagles appeared to be justified in not picking up running back Brian Westbrook’s option for the 2011 season, as he sprained his surgically repaired right ankle on Sunday.

“It was just sore,” Westbrook said. “I tried to put a little weight on it. Tried to be effective out there on the field. You don’t want to go out there and hurt the team. As far as running, I wanted to make some cuts, and I just wasn’t able to do it.”

The injury to Westbrook was just one of many problems coming out of the Eagles’ home opener. Despite a better than expected first half out of quarterback Kevin Kolb, who was making his first ever NFL start in place of the injured Donovan McNabb, things seemed to simply fall apart for the Eagles after half time.

Headed into the locker room down 17-13 at the half, the game was well within reach. Kolb looked impressive, …

The Phillies announced Thursday that reliever Chan Ho Park would miss two to three weeks with a torn right hamstring.

Assistant general manager Scott Proefrock said that Park would remain with the team for the next few days and then report to Clearwater for rehab. Proefrock said that the team is hopeful that he will be ready to return in time for the playoffs.

According to David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News, manager Charlie Manuel and pitching coach Rich Dubee are planning on talking to Tyler Walker about filling in for Park, as Brett Myers is believed to not be healthy enough to take on the long relief responsibilities.

Other candidates for Park’s long relief duties could be Jamie Moyer, and J.A. Happ come playoff time, as both pitchers can pitch several outings at a time.

Park is 3-3 with a 4.43 ERA in 45 games this year. He injured his right hamstring on the final play of the eighth inning Wednesday night against the Washington Nationals.

Charlie Manuel’s bullpen received yet another blow on Wednesday, as Chan Ho Park suffered a hamstring injury on his final pitch of the seventh inning of Wednesday night’s game against the Washington Nationals.

Park said he felt his right hamstring pop on his final throw of the inning. After the game, Manuel indicated that Park could be out for a significant amount of time.

“He’s probably going to be down a while,” Manuel said.

Will this keep Park out of the postseason? It’s too early to tell, said Manuel.

“We’ll probably know more about it tomorrow [Thursday],” Manuel said. “But, yeah, he’s out for a while. I’m very concerned about him, because he pulled it pretty good.”

The injury complicates Manuel’s current closer-by-committee configuration, as Brett Myers will likely be needed to replace Park in the sixth and seventh innings. Myers was being used in the eighth inning to set up Ryan Madson, who Manuel used on several occasions as a closer replacement for the struggling Brad Lidge.

The Phillies expect to …

I’m not buying all this talk from pundits and fans about how the Eagles need to give Kevin Kolb a shot to prove what he can do this Sunday in the home opener against the New Orleans Saints.

Why? Why do we need to give Kolb a chance?

We didn’t draft Kevin Kolb. We didn’t make him the heir apparent to Donovan McNabb. We’re not going to look stupid if Kolb turns out to be a dud. No egg on our face.

Sure, for Andy Reid to prove that he made a smart move when he drafted Kolb in 2007 he needs to start Kolb on Sunday. I get why he and the Eagles’ front office believe that they need to stand behind him.

But as fans, and objective pundits, there shouldn’t be a single person out there saying that Kolb should be the starter against the Saints. Not if you’re first priority is winning football games.

I don’t buy the argument that it’s still early in the season, so we …

What many of us believed to be inevitable has finally happened. Shawn Andrews has been placed on Injured Reserve to make room for Jeff Garcia, effectively ending his season.

Oddly enough, even though Week 1 already happened, Andrews season is over before it ever started. Bothered by a sore lower back, Andrews missed all of training camp, as well as all four preseason games, and only started practicing with the team a couple weeks ago.

The move comes as a particular blow to the Eagles, as two moves made by the front office this offseason were seen to have been, in large part, to get Andrews in the right state of mind and excited about football again, after he missed considerable time last season due to depression. The Eagles signed Andrews brother Stacey Andrews and his college roommate Jason Peters, both offensive linemen, this offseason.

The move will likely free up a considerable amount of time for Andrews, allowing him to pursue his dream of making seriously bad rap …