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PHILADELPHIA -- This years Phillies may be plummeting in the standings, but the future in Philadelphia is beginning to look a little brighter. Ethan Martin earned his first major league win, Cody Asche hit his first home run and the Phillies routed the Chicago Cubs 12-1 Thursday. Asche had three hits, including a homer that capped a six-run fourth inning. The burst was plenty for Martin (1-1). "We both kind of got up here at the same time, so were both going through all of this together," Asche said. "Its kind of nice to have a friend thats doing the same thing, and it just so happened we both did something cool on the same day." Martin pitched five innings and allowed one run and four hits, striking out four and walking three. Nate Schierholtz homered in the fourth. Martin won in his second major league start. He gave up six runs in a loss to Atlanta last Friday. "Its been a dream of mine for about as long as I can remember," he said. "So to be able to do this, Im pretty happy." Rookie Darin Ruf also homered for Philadelphia. Chase Utley delivered an RBI double on the day the Phillies announced a new contract with the star second baseman that goes through the 2015 season. The Phillies took two of three from the Cubs for their first series win since the All-Star break. Jeff Samardzija (6-11) was chased in the big fourth. He gave up nine runs and 11 hits in 3 1-3 innings in his shortest outing of the year. "They came out with a game plan to attack me, and it worked," Samardzija said. "They put the bat on the ball. ... I threw too many ball up in the zone. My slider was good, but it was just one of those days." The game was delayed by rain for 22 minutes in the seventh inning. Ruf got the first of four consecutive Phillies hits in a two-run second inning. John Mayberry Jr. and Michael Martinez each had RBI singles. Ruf launched a two-run homer in the third, connecting on an 0-2 pitch. It was his second drive of the series and fifth home run of the year. Carlos Ruizs bunt single drove in the first run in Philadelphias fourth. Domonic Brown added a two-run single and Asche hit a line-drive homer to right field. John McDonald hit his first homer of the year, a two-run shot in the eighth. "Mightve been the best weve hit all year," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "That was exciting. We had a really good day today. Our guys had some fun, and hopefully this will carry over and well get a lot of our respect back, play better, and win some games." NOTES: Phillies 3B Michael Young was in the original lineup but was scratched and did not play. ... Anthony Rizzo doubled for the Cubs. Of his 102 hits this season, over half (52) have been for extra bases. ... The Cubs have an extra-base hit in 31 consecutive games. ... The Phillies claimed OF Casper Wells off waivers Thursday from the Chicago White Sox. ... Thursdays win marked No. 999 for Phillies manager Charlie Manuel in his career. He is on deck to become the 59th manager in major league history to win 1,000. ... Philadelphia embarks on a six-game road trip in Washington beginning Friday, when former Nationals pitcher John Lannan (3-4, 4.10) will start. ... The Cubs will be in St. Louis on Friday to begin a three-game set with the Cardinals. Chris Rusin (1-1, 3.98) will get the ball in the first game. Amare Stoudemire Jersey . -- Yogi Ferrell orchestrates pretty much everything in Indianas offence. Leandro Barbosa Jersey . Burris threw two TD passes, including a key 15-yard fourth-quarter strike to Bakari Grant that effectively countered a Toronto comeback bid and led Hamilton to a 33-19 victory. https://www.cheapsunsonline.com/959z-devin-booker-jersey-suns.html . But now that hes in the NHL, the Calgary Flames centre showed big improvement in that department by scoring the winner in the eighth round of a 5-4 shootout victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Monday. Tom Chambers Jersey . -- Yogi Ferrell orchestrates pretty much everything in Indianas offence. Larry Nance Jersey . They had already blown a double-digit lead, fans were hitting the exits, and a long seven-game road trip waited at the end. North Carolina is not yet in control of its future when it comes to a return appearance in the ACC Championship Game as Virginia Tech holds the tiebreaker over the Tar Heels if those two teams end up tied at the top of the Coastal Division standings at the end of the regular season.But the No. 22 Tar Heels are sitting in a much better position heading into Saturdays game against Virginia at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Va., (3 p.m. ET, RSN) than they were a week ago when they were bound for Miami coming off the big loss to the Hokies.The win over the Hurricanes put North Carolina (5-2, 3-1 ACC) alone in first place in the division when the Hokies lost at Syracuse to fall to 2-1 in league play.Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, however, their 20-13 victory over the Hurricanes came with a price.They lost wide receiver Mack Hollins to a broken collarbone and the senior will miss the rest of the season after having surgery. Hollins led North Carolina in touchdown catches with four among his 16 receptions. His 19.3 yards per catch average was tops among receivers with more than one catch.Fortunately for the Tar Heels, they do have depth at the position. Wide receiver Ryan Switzer has 58 catches for 606 yards, Bug Howard 29 for 429 and Austin Proehl 24 for 302. Running backs T.J. Logan and Elijah Hood have a combined 34 catches for 229 yards.We still got some guys that can stretch the field vertically, North Carolina coach Larry Fedora said. That doesnt overly concern me.Well miss Macks ability to do it. Thats probably the thing he does best, but weve got some guys who can get behind people.The Tar Heels, who have won six straight over Virginia, have gone through what arguably is the toughest part of their schedule with their four remaining conference games against teams with a combined 3-8 league mark. In addition to Virginias 1-1 conference record, Georgia Tech is 1/3 in league play, Duke 0-3 and North Carolina State 1-1. North Carolina also has a non-conference affair against The Citadel.None of the conference games figurees to be pushovers, though the Tar Heels likely will be favored in all four.ddddddddddddIf they are able to run the table, they still need Virginia Tech to lose at least one more time to get to the ACC title game. North Carolina already has beaten Pittsburgh (5-2, 2-1).Virginia (2-4, 1-1) could be an interesting matchup. The Cavaliers began the season by losing their first three games (Richmond, Oregon, Connecticut) but notched a win over Central Michigan before opening conference play by beating Duke 24-10. They lost a high-scoring 45-31 affair to Pittsburgh last week.I like my team, first-year coach Bronco Mendenhall said. I like how hard they try and how theyve embraced the culture. And were moving up the scale of the effort and intent to position mastery and execution.Thats basically where our team is right now. So were becoming better in terms of our position mastery and playing our spots. Execution is not holding yet long enough from beginning to end in all three phases to have the outcomes that we would like.But more and more plays are looking how we would like them to be.Cavaliers quarterback Kurt Benkert, a transfer from East Carolina, has passed for 421, 336, and 278 yards the last three games but has seven interceptions against 14 touchdown passes for the season.The Cavaliers have a two-back approach to the rushing game with Taquan Mizzell rushing for a team-best 355 yards and Albert Reid 346.Defensively, the Cavaliers had some success at times stopping the run, holding Central Michigan to 93 yards rushing and Duke to 106, but gave up 209 yards to Pittsburgh their last outing and 301 to Oregon early in the season.Were still missing more plays in open field than what I would like, Mendenhall said. But were starting to make more than what we had before. So a work in progress.The series, which North Carolina leads 63-53-4, began in 1892 and is billed as the oldest rivalry in the South. ' ' '