In the midst of this 3 game winning streak and winning 6 of their last 7, the Phillies have improved their record to 14-11 and are just a half game behind the Florida Marlins for first place in the NL East. The Phillies had struggled to get above .500 for most of the season but now are pushing to stay on top.
The Phillies beat the Pirates 8-4 yesterday with the help of a huge 5-run first inning. The best part is that all the action started with 2 outs in the inning. Jayson Werth lead off the game by grounding out to short. Greg Dobbs then popped out to the 3rd baseman. Chase Utley got the rally started with a single to right. Ryan Howard then crushed a homerun to centerfield. Phillies 2-0. Pat Burrell singled over the shortstop’s head. Geoff Jenkins hit a liner to right that went off of Xavier Nady’s glove for an error. Burrell scored and Jenkins went to 2nd. Phillies 3-0. Chris Coste was hit by a pitch. Eric Bruntlett singled in Jenkins. Kyle Kendrick hit a grounder to short that was booted into centerfield allowing Coste to score. E6, Phillies 5-0. Werth then came up and committed his second out of the inning by flying out to right.
Pirate’s starter threw 49 pitches in the first inning! He was pulled after getting 2 outs in the second. Sadly, it might have been Morris’ last outing of his career. He is now 0-4 on the season with a 9.67 ERA. His fastball is maybe in the mid 80s and he doesn’t have the control to be a finesse pitcher. There has been a lot of talk of him either being released (but then the Pirates would have to eat a lot of $) or him possibly just retiring (but there’s all that cash)
I just looked again to find the link, and apparently in the hour since I last looked, the Pirate’s did release him. He said “I’ve always said the other team will let you know when you’re done.” Well that team was the Phillies.
The Phillies go for the sweep of the Keystone Series today as Brett Myers (2-1, 4.78) takes on Paul Maholm (1-2, 4.22). The Phillies have to wait until Tuesday to get Shane Victorino back from the 15-day DL. Luckily Jason Werth has been on fire in his time filling in. I just looked, and Ryan Howard has 4 strikeouts in I think 9 at bats against Maholm. I know it sounds repetitive, but look for him to fan a couple more times.
