Astros  5    Phillies  3

Houston Astros (73-85) at Philadelphia Phillies (92-66), 7:05 p.m.

Sports Network | October 1, 2009

(Sports Network) - Now that the Philadelphia Phillies have wrapped up their third straight National League East title, it is time to get ready for the playoffs. Getting Cliff Lee back on track would be a starter.

Lee takes the hill for the defending champions tonight in their finale of a four-game set with the Houston Astros at Citizens Bank Park.

Winning for the second time in this set, the Phillies saw all eight of their starting position players notch either a hit or an RBI in last night's 10-3 victory. Philadelphia had actually clinched the division moments before Brad Lidge recorded the game's final out by virtue of Atlanta's 5-4 loss.

Regardless, the Phils won their third straight division crown for the second time in team history and first since 1976-78. They club now trails the NL West-leading Dodgers by a half-game for home-field advantage throughout the league playoffs with four games remaining. Los Angeles has three games left and is off tonight.

Raul Ibanez led Philadelphia's balanced attack with a two-run homer, his career-high 34th of the season.

"It can never get old when you win and you're happy," said Shane Victorino, who hit his NL-best 13th triple of the season. "We're going to another postseason. We've got an opportunity to be World Series champs again. We have to take it one step at a time."

Like the LA Angels of Anaheim, who honored deceased pitcher Nick Adenhart after they clinched their division title, the host of Philadelphia players went out to left-center field to throw some champagne on a sign commemorating Hall of Fame broadcaster Harry Kalas, who passed away in April.

J.R. Towles had his first-career multi-homer game for the Astros, who have lost 10 of their last 11 road games and had won their first five meetings this year with Philadelphia before back-to-back losses. Miguel Tejada extended his hitting streak to 17 games with a 2-for-4 effort.

"I definitely like the way they swing the bats," Astros manager Dave Clark said of the Phillies. "I'm sure there's a few question marks about the pitching, especially the bullpen. You get in those playoff atmosphere situations you've got to have good pitching. Hopefully they'll come through for them."

Getting Lee going would help, as he figures to be the anchor of the club's starting pitching staff in the postseason. However, after going 5-0 with a 0.68 earned run average in his first five starts since coming over in a trade with Cleveland, Lee is 2-3 with a 6.35 ERA in six starts.

He last faced the Brewers on Friday, with the 31-year-old lefty allowing seven runs on nine hits over six innings of a loss.

"His first [few] games here were really, really good," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel told his team's Web site after that setback. "That was because he had command to both sides of the plate. He's had some trouble doing that.

Lee, 7-3 with a 3.28 ERA in 11 starts with Philadelphia, faced Houston for the first time in his career on September 4 and took a loss, yielding six runs over three innings.

The Astros start Felipe Paulino, who lost all five of his September starts due in large part to poor run support. He pitched to a 3.52 ERA over the first four losses, but Houston plated just two runs in that span. The right-hander then came undone versus the Reds on Saturday, allowing eight runs on nine hits and four walks over five innings.

The 25-year-old is 2-11 with a 6.51 ERA this season, having not won since June 27, and faces the Phillies for the first time.