Normally, teams have been able to walk all over the Colorado Rockies. This year, the Rockies were off to a good start and anytime you play in Denver, you just don’t know what might happen.
On Friday, we had a typical Coors field game. The two teams combined to score 18 runs and there were 30 hits. The Phillies scored nine runs by the end of the fourth inning, and only a four run ninth inning by the Rockies made things interesting. Ryan Madson had a solid start. He did give up eleven hits, but he held the Rockies to four runs (three earned). Julio Santana was credited with those four ninth inning runs, but fortunately, Arthur Rhodes and Tom Gordon came in to stop the bleeding. Chase Utley had the monster game. He had two homeruns and drove in five runs. Aaron Rowand went three for four with a homerun, three runs and two RBIs. Pat Burrell had two RBIs and two runs.
Saturday was more of the same, but this time it was the Rockies scoring ten runs. Jon Lieber was having a mediocre start until he ran into some major problems in the seventh inning. He left the game and ended up being credited with seven runs on seven hits. He had only a single strikeout and he dropped to 0-3 on the season. Bobby Abreau homered and drove in four runs and Pat Burrell had a two run homer.
Sunday was the anamoly. Ryan Howard hit a solo homerun in the seventh inning (only his second of the season) and that was all of the scoring. Bret Myers threw a gem and the Phillies won 1-0. He threw 7 2/3 shutout innings and he struck out five. Tom Gordon pitched a perfect ninth and he earned his fourth save of the season. Outside of Gordon’s first game as a Phillies, he’s done a great job so far this year. Arthur Rhodes has done a nice job as the setup man as well.
The Phillies get the day off tomorrow, and then they come home to play the Nationals. Cory Lidle will take the mound in the series opener and he’ll go against Tony Armas. A sweep will put the Phillies above .500 for the first time this year.
