Tag Archives: Braun

Phils Win as Halladay Scuffles

5 Sep

sept112.jpgThe Phillies are once again the comeback kids. 

The Brewers never held the lead for more then a few outs as the Phillies answered each of the Brew Crew’s offensive outbursts.  On a night were Roy Halladay didn’t pitch his best, and battled with a tough strike zone, the Phillies backed their Ace with a couple bombs and some really heads up base running. 

Home plate umpire Mike Estabrook wasn’t going to give Halladay any sort of edge if he was going to bring down the power of Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, and Cory Hart.  Halladay was visibly upset that Estabrook was calling things so tight.  Roy appeared to have Braun rung up twice but Estabrook wasn’t feeling Roy’s fastballs along the paint.  In the end it didn’t really matter as Roy Halladay earned his 17th win of the season which ties him for a share of the National League lead.  Roy was glad his team backed his efforts.

“I’m fortunate the home runs that I gave up were solo homers, and we
were able to score some runs, especially those two in the seventh on
heads-up baseball,” Halladay said.

Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth went back-to-back for the second time this week with home runs, but it was the sac fly from Placido Polanco that was probably the most exciting play from the batters box.  With the bases loaded in the 7th Polly hit a fly ball to left field that Ryan Braun caught and threw home.  With Carlos Ruiz charging to the plate, catcher Jonathan Lucroy misread the throw and the ball bounded to the back stop.  Wilson Valdez, who was on second read it perfectly and raced to the plate and beat Lucroy’s tag and gave the Phillies the 5-4 lead which stood for the night. 

Valdez has been pretty invaluable to a team that has been plagued with injuries to it’s biggest stars.  Wilson has filled in for Jimmy and Chase very nicely and despite his offensive woes and many GDP’s he’s really provided the Phillies with a great bit of positivity, great fielding, energy on the bench, .

Romero, Madson and Lidge closed the door on the power hitting Crew and sealed the victory for Halladay. 

The Phillies are now at a season high 20 games over .500 and still are just one small game back behind the Atlanta Braves who also won on Saturday night.

Side Notes -

Wild Card – Giants won, so no gain tonight.

Call Ups – Add pitcher Scott Mathieson to the list of names that will be available out of the bullpen on Sunday.  Pitchers Vance Worley and Nate Robertson will be getting the call, but they won’t be activated until Monday.  It’s been speculated that Vance Worley will be the Phillies other starter during Monday’s doubleheader.  Roy Oswalt will be the other.  Oswalt will likely be able to choose whither he would like to start game 1 or game 2, and Worley, if he is indeed the other starter will go in the other game.  My guess is that Oswalt will prefer the night cap.

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Cole Hamels Dominates

4 Sep

_sept311.jpgAt the beginning of the season I don’t think that anyone would have predicted that Cole Hamels would be this good.  Why is that?  He’s been this good before, but just not for this long. Cole in my mind has surpassed the Cole of 2008, at least as far as the regular season is concerned. 

Hamels’ night was as dominate as ever. Cole made the lone run stand, as he breezed to his second straight win and
ran his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 18. He allowed three
hits and struck out seven.  This was coming off a fantastic performance last week in his hometown of San Diego when he allowed four hits in eight scoreless innings.  Hamels pitched 

He’s not a #3 starter in my book.  Cole has continued to pitch strong all season long in many close games where he was the victim of poor run support, but continues to come out and throw amazing.

“It’s grueling,” Hamels said of pitching in close game after close game.
“That’s when you discover who you are and what you are capable of.”

What was the other trend continued for the Phillies on Friday night?  They scored only a single run.  I think that some of that might be due to a little jet lag since Phils flight from Colorado didn’t arrive in Philadelphia until the sun was coming up.  Not to mention that the Phillies killed the ball in their 12-11 win over the Rockies.

Their best scoring chance came in the fourth when they loaded the base off Chris Capuano, but didn’t
score when Raul Ibanez struck out and Ruiz lined into a double play.  Credit to Chooch cause he really hammered it, but it was right to second base where Werth was doubled up.

The Phillies lone run came on a mis-cue from the Brewers outffileders Ryan Braun and Lorenzo Cain.  They both appeared to have a good chance at catching the routine fly ball Shane Victorino but looked to have some sort of confusion on who actually called it.  I loved when Lorenzo Cain threw his hands up after Braun didn’t catch it.  That was funny.   Victorino, hustling from the instant he made contact, ended up on
second. He moved to third on a groundout and scored on Carlos Ruiz’s
grounder.

Tonight Roy Halladay will face the Brew Crew as he looks to come back from a less thrilling shutout they were handed by the Dodgers.  

Side Notes -

Division Race- The Phillies moved to a season-best 19 games over .500 (77-58) and moved within one game of NL East-leading Atlanta.  The Phillies have a 29-12 record since July 21 which is the best in baseball.

Wild Card – The Giants lost to the Dodgers which gives the Phillies a 3 game cushion.

Roster Moves – The Phillies have activated Greg Dobbs and Ross Gload.  Rumor has it that the Phillies are possibly going to tab Vance Worley for Monday’s double header.  Makes sense to me.  Worley has been sitting guys down left and right.  

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