Cleveland Pounds Phillies in Series Opener
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2nd baseman Josh Barfield and catcher Kelly Shoppach combined for 7 RBIs off of Phillies starter Cole Hamels and Cleveland’s Cliff Lee pitched 7 innings of 1 run, 5 hit ball to win this battle of lefties as the Indians mauled the Phillies by a 10-1 score in their series opener.
In dropping this one, the Phillies lost ground, dropping a game to both the Mets and the Atlanta Braves in the NL East race as the Mets, losers of 7 of 8 games and John Maine stymied the Minnesota Twins 8-1 and the Braves rocked Curt Schilling and the Boston Red Sox by a 9-4 score. The Phillies are now 1 1/2 games behind 2nd place Atlanta and 3 behind the Mets.
Despite getting 9 hits in the game and leaving 10, the Phils could only manage 1 run, 1st baseman Ryan Howard’s 15th homer in the 6th inning, against starter and winning pitcher Lee and relievers Aaron Fultz and Fernando Cabrera.
AP Sports Writer Tom Withers reports on Cliff Lee’s performance for Yahoo sports;
Lee began the season on the DL with an abdominal strain, but until recently he hadn’t pitched up to expectations and had heard so from disappointed manager Eric Wedge. Lee, though, had little trouble with the Phillies.
He worked in a curveball and changeup with his fastball, a mixture the Phillies couldn’t handle.
Meanwhile, Hamels made his earliest exit of the season, leaving after 5 innings and being battered for 6 runs on 8 hits, including Shoppach’s 2nd inning 3 run homer. Neither starter issued any walks in the game.
AP Sports Writer Withers reports on Hamels’ frustration with his performance;
Hamels was annoyed with his choice of pitches to Shoppach, and he was equally disturbed by his overall performance.
“I had thrown him two changeups in a row and then I threw a third one,” he said. “That’s something I need to learn from. I should have thrown him something else. It ticks me off.
“When you give up five runs in the first two innings, you don’t put yourself in a good spot and you don’t put your team in a good spot.”
Things got no better for Phils’ pitching in the 6th as reliever Geoff Geary replaced Hamels and gave up 3 Cleveland runs in the inning. Reliever Brian Sanches finished up the game pitching the 7th and 8th innings and giving up a 7th inning solo homer to former Phillie, leftfielder Jason Michaels.
For the scores, boxscores and recaps on this and all of Monday’s games, click here.
Rookie Kyle Kendrick, starting his 2nd big-league game and filling the injured Freddy Garcia’s spot in the pitching rotation, faces Cleveland’s young lefthander Jason Stanford as the Phillies badly need to even up this series and not lose further ground in the NL East race.
For the scores, boxscores and recaps on this and all of Tuesday’s games, click here.
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