After losing a close opener and then clobbering the Florida Marlins in 3 straight games, the Phils were themselves routed, beaten to a pulp by the Marlins by a 15-2 score.

Phils starter and losing pitcher Jon Lieber (4-8) showed no signs of any effectiveness at all in being beaten nearly bloody and unmercifully by Florida in giving up 9 runs on 13 hits including 3 of Florida’s round-trippers in his 4 1/3 innings of work.  And outside of new arrival lefthanded reliever Fabio Castro (0-0, 2.16 ERA) who has pitched well in 5 consecutive relief appearances including 2.1 innings on Monday, 2 other Phils relievers similarly clobbered for 6 Florida runs in the 8th and 9th innings.

Florida starter and winning pitcher Josh Johnson (9-5, 2.52) pitched a splendid 7 innings giving up but 1 run and 5 hits while walking none and getting great support from the Marlin offense.  The Florida bullpen closed down the Phils the rest of the way allowing 1 run on 2 hits.

The Marlins scored 2 runs each in the 1st and 2nd innings as 3rd baseman Miguel Cabrera (16 HRs, 66 RBIs, .326 BA) and catcher Miguel Olivo (12 HRs, 40 RBIs, .292 BA) each hit 2 run homers.  Pitcher Josh Johnson doubled in a run in the 4th and then singled in a run in the 5th following rightfielder Jeremy Hermida’s (5 HRs, 22 RBIs, .288 BA) 3 run homer.   In the 8th, Cabrera doubled in a run and pinch hitter Reggie Abercrombie drove in 2 more runs with a triple.  In the 9th, the Marlins got some icing, as centerfielder Alfredo Amezaga (2 HRs, .271 BA) pushed in a run with a ground out and 2nd baseman  Dan Uggla (16 HRs, 61 RBIs, .295 BA) mercifully concluded the scoring for Florida with a 2 run homer.

The Phils scored their 2 runs on a solo homer in the 2nd inning by catcher Chris Coste (3 HRs, 15 RBIs, .343 BA) and an RBI single in the 8th  by new arrival 2nd baseman Danny Sandoval (.286 BA) who spelled Chase Utley (21 HRs, 69 RBIs, .327 BA) late in the game.  Utley, by the way extended his major league seasonal high hitting streak to 32 consecutive games with a single in the 6th inning, one of just 7 Philly hits for the game. 

For a full recap including box score and play-by-play on Monday’s game, click here.

The Phils got in under the wire with one more trade dealing lefthanded reliever Rheal Cormier (2-2, 1.59 ERA) to Cincinnati for minor league prospect, starting pitcher Justin Germano (0-1).

The Phils try to get back on the winning side as they begin a 3 game series with the St Louis Cardinals in St. Louis.  Rookie pitcher Scott Mathieson (0-2) makes his 5th attempt to win his 1st major league game vs Jeff Suppan (8-5) going for the Cardinals.

For full coverage of Tuesday’s games in both leagues; previews, recaps, box scores and play-by-play coverage click here.

Add to:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. | del.icio.us | digg | Furl | Reddit | YahooMyWeb |

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.