Losing a series on the road 2 games to 1 against a good team is never fun. The thing to remember is that the road team is supposed to lose. It’s called a home-field advantage for a reason. Just look at the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs. These two teams have the best record in the AL and NL respectively. Boston is 14-20 on the road while the Cubs are 14-16. The Phillies are actually one of just 3 teams to have a winning road record. Both the Angels and Cardinals are also above .500 on the road. The good news is that even with dropping two games to the second place Marlins, we still lead them by 3 games in the NL East.
Tuesday:
As I said in my dialog with The South Florida Fan last time we played the Marlins, Brett Myers tends to give up homers in the first inning. Well that’s exactly what happened Tuesday. It’s always hard to fight out of a 3 run hole after your starter gives up 2 homeruns for 3 runs in the bottom of the first inning. Myers later gave up another 2-run shot in the 5th inning. Homers from Pat Burrell and Jimmy Rollins weren’t enough to overcome the original lead of the Marlins as the Phils lost 5-4. Myers, who had been pitching better of late, picked up the loss to run his record to 3-8.
Wednesday:
What a way to spoil a fantastic start by Cole Hamels, Tom. Hamels pitched 8 innings, gave up 2 solo homers and struck out 13! Yes, THIRTEEN! After the Phillies tied the game at 2 in the top of the 9th, Tom Gordon came into the game to preserve the game to give us a chance in extra innings. Gordon did record an out. That ends the good things that he did in the game. He also gave up a hit and walked 2 to load the bases for Dan Uggla. With one out, bases loaded, tie game in the bottom of the 9th, one of the top power hitters this season at the plate, and Tom Gordon pitching, I was not optimistic about the outcome. Uggla ended the game in grand fashion, literally. He crushed the ball for a walk-off grand slam. I figured he would at least get a sac fly to win it, but not that.
Yesterday:
Would you believe me if I said that our best starter is the oldest man in baseball? Well with the Phillies 3-0 win over the Marlins last night Moyer moved to 7-3 on the season. He has been quietly having a very nice first half. He has been able to utilize his offspeed junk to set up his “fast” ball. I might as well just call it a straight ball. The key for Moyer is location which he has been spot on with. He is a pitcher who really works hard to miss opposing teams bats, and hopefully as teams see him for a second and third time this season they don’t start to key in on him.
Moyer pitched 8 innings of shutout ball. He only gave up 2 hits and 1 walk. The Marlins have to be glad to see him leave town. The Marlins are now 0-9 in games that Moyer starts against them. Brad Lidge struck out 2 in the 9th for his 18th save.
Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Pat Burrell, and Pedro Feliz all had 2 hits in the game. Ryan Howard is getting back closer to .200. By going 0-5 he is back to batting just .204. That is simply unacceptable for a major league player no matter how many homeruns or RBIs he has. Another player who has not been performing this season is catcher Carlos Ruiz. He is batting just .217 with only 2 HRs and 16 RBIs. Personally I would play Chris Coste over him. I think a lot of you would agree with me seeing as he is outperforming Ruiz, and he is a fan favorite across MLB.
Today:
The Phillies move to the STL to take on the Cardinals tonight at 8:15et. Both teams are 40-28 so it looks to be another good, tough series. Kyle Kendrick gets the start against the surprising Todd Wellemeyer. Wellemeyer made 11 starts last season and they were his first starts in his career. He has started 13 games for the Cardinals this year and is posting a 7-1 record with a ridiculous 2.93 ERA. The Cards, however, are without annual MVP candidate Albert Pujols who strained his calf coming out of the box the other day. Hopefully he can make a fast recovery for them. Look for another low scoring game tonight with the final score being 5-4. I would say that Brad Lidge can finally face his demons and pitch against Pujols in the bottom of the 9th for the save, but that’s not going to happen. He still gets the save though.
