Originally published July 22, 2007 at 12:00 AM | Page modified July 25, 2007 at 9:08 PM

Game of the Day | Moyer has more at 44

Ryan Howard made Petco Park look like a bandbox. The 2006 National League MVP hit two towering home runs off David Wells, helping Jamie...

By Bernie Wilson

The Associated Press

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DENIS POROY / AP

Jamie Moyer, who snapped a three-game losing streak, throws a first-inning pitch on the way to his eighth win for Philadelphia.

SAN DIEGO — Ryan Howard made Petco Park look like a bandbox.

The 2006 National League MVP hit two towering home runs off David Wells, helping Jamie Moyer win a battle of ancient left-handers in the Philadelphia Phillies' 12-4 win over San Diego Saturday night.

"It's big," Howard said about the Padres' spacious downtown home. "You still have to go up there with your same approach to hitting it."

Howard reached base five times, going 3 for 3 with two walks and driving in five runs.

The beneficiary of his big blasts was the 44-year-old Moyer, who was traded to the Phillies last year after 11 seasons with the Seattle Mariners.

Moyer and Wells had a combined age of 88 years, 307 days, the second-oldest pitching matchup in big-league history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The oldest matchup featured the Angels' Don Sutton against the Indians' Phil Niekro on June 8, 1987, when their combined age was 90 years, 135 days.

Moyer (8-8) allowed four runs and eight hits in 6-2/3 innings to improve to 224-174 in his 21 major-league seasons. He had been 0-3 with a 10.06 earned-run average in his past three starts.

Howard, the Phillies' 6-foot-4, 252-pound, left-handed slugger, hit a high, arching three-run shot to center field off Wells with one out in the first. Jimmy Rollins was aboard on a leadoff single and Chase Utley on a one-out walk.

Howard gave the Phillies a 4-0 lead when he led off the fourth by driving a full-count pitch into the second deck in left-center field, estimated at 428 feet.

"He's got a long bat, I guess, about 40 inches. He's legit, he's got a good swing, he sees the ball well," Wells said.

Howard tormented Wells one final time, knocking him out of the game with an RBI single in the fifth.

Howard has hit 12 of his 27 homers this season off lefties.

"It took him a little while last year to really get going [against] lefties," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said of his first baseman. "Once he finds his stroke, once he stays on the ball and stays in the middle of the field, that's when he hits them good. Most left-handers do that, too. Except he's just bigger and stronger than most guys."

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