Phillies hit three straight homers in first inning

ST. LOUIS -- Philadelphia's Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell homered in consecutive at-bats in the first inning off St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Todd Wellemeyer on Friday night.

It was the seventh time the Phillies hit back-to-back-to-back home runs, and the first time since May 18, 2004, when Bobby Abreu, Pat Burrell and Jim Thome did it against the Dodgers at home. Abreu, Burrell and Thome also homered in successive at-bats against the Cardinals on May 4, 2004.

Wellemeyer struck out Jimmy Rollins and retired Shane Victorino on a groundout to start the game. Utley followed with his major league-leading 22nd homer over the right-field wall, Howard hit his 16th to the opposite field just over the left-field wall and Burrell homered -- his 17th -- to left before Wellemeyer recovered to retire Geoff Jenkins on an infield pop-up.