After the Phillies went 1-2-3 in the first inning, Cole Hamels got the first two Astros out in the bottom of the inning before giving up a single to Miguel Tejada, and a week hit to Lance Berkman. Carlos Lee then came up to the plate. After fouling a ball off, Lee’s follow through hit the home plate umpire on the top of the head. The ump had to leave the game following a 10+ minute delay. It looked like a bad hit, and that he possibly cut his head open. Hopefully he isn’t hurt too badly.
After the delay, Hamels ran the count full against Lee then fed him a fastball about middle in. That ball got out very quickly and the game was now 3-0 Astros.
After Pat Burrell drew a walk, Geoff Jenkins stepped into the batters box. Jenkins gets the start today after the Phillies had to place Jayson Werth on the 15-day DL with a strained right oblique. After the Houston commentators on mlb.tv said at least 4 times that Jenkins has an uppercut swing, he crushed his 3rd homerun leftfield. The Phillies currently trail 3-2 at the end of the 2nd inning.
And the rest of the game: Cole Hamels had a better day at the plate than he did on the mound in this game. He singled to lead off the 3rd inning. He eventually came around to score after Jimmy Rollins doubled off the right field wall to move him to third, and Chase Utley got him home on a sac fly. After he tied the score 3-3, he gave up 2 more runs in the bottom of the inning to still trail 5-3. In the 4th, Carlos Ruiz doubled to left, and Hamels drove him in with his second hit of the game. He once again gave up a run in the bottom of the inning though to trail 6-4.
Hamels was pulled after pitching only 4 innings and giving up 6 earned runs. More surprising than all the runs, he did not strike out any batters. Luckily for him, the bats showed up later in the game, and once again the outstanding bullpen did not give up a single run for the rest of the game. Rudy Seanez, JC Romero, Ryan Madson, and Clay Condrey all combined to throw 5 scoreless innings with Seanez getting the “W”.
As I said, the bats would show up more later in the game. That would be the 6th and 7th innings precisely. The Phillies pounded the Houston bullpen for 11 runs in those 2 innings, batting around the lineup in each. Pat Burrell lead off both the innings with big hits; a homerun and a double where So Taguchi scored for him as a pinch runner. In the 6th, including Burrell, the bottom 5 in the lineup all reached base and scored. In the 7th, it almost happened again, but Carlos Ruiz struck out. In his pinch-hit at bat, Greg Dobbs got a 2 RBI double to help cement himself as the best pinch-hitter in the league this year. Chase Utley rounded out the scoring with a 2-run HR.
Ryan Howard was the only starter to fail to get a hit in the game. He struck out 2 times, but he has looked much better these last 2 weeks. He and Jimmy Rollins were the only Phillies starters to not score a run in the game.
Here is a rundown on who scored all the runs and who had all the RBIs:
Jimmy Rollins: 1-6, 1 RBI
Shane Victorino: 2-5, 1 Run, 3 RBI
Chase Utley: 1-4, HR, 1 Run, 3 RBI
Ryan Howard: 0-4, BB, 2 Ks
Pat Burrell: 2-3, 2 Runs, 1 RBI
-So Taguchi: 0-1, 1 Run
Geoff Jenkins: 3-5, HR, 3 Runs, 2 RBI
Pedro Feliz: 2-5, 2 Runs, 1 RBI
Carlos Ruiz: 2-5, 2 Runs, 1 RBI
Cole Hamels: 2-2, 1 Run, 1 RBI
-Eric Bruntlett: 0-0, BB, 1 Run
-Greg Dobbs: 1-1, 1 Run, 2 RBIs
-TJ Bohn: 0-1
