On Sunday, the Phillies’ young lefthander Cole Hamels went 3 innings giving up 3 hits and 1 run while walking 1 and striking out 3 before his start was washed out by a 1 1/2 hour rain delay.  But the bullpen came up huge in holding the Cards off of the board the rest of the way. 

Phillie-killer Kip Wells lasted 5 innings and also gave up 1 run on 3 hits. But the Phils scored late on pinch hitter Shane Victorino’s 2 out, bases-clearing 3 run double to leftfield and added an insurance run in the 9th on leftfielder Michael Bourn’s RBI single to leftfield which followed shortstop Jimmy Rollins’ ground rule double to rightfield to clip the Cards in the series finale by a 5-1 score.

In winning, the Phillies kept pace with the Mets who drubbed Oakland by a  10-2 score behind another fine performance by starter John Maine. The Phils remained 3 games behind the NL East leaders but jumped to a 1 1/2 game 2nd place lead over the Atlanta Braves who were shut out by the  Detroit Tigers by a 5-0 score as the Tigers swept the 3 games, only allowing Atlanta 1 run for the series.  This time, the Tigers got a combined 6 hit shut out, with Andrew Miller going 6 innings and getting the win while reliever Chad Durbin, who went the final 3 innings, was credited with the first save of his 8 year MLB career.

In the Phils, Cards game, St. Louis scored first getting a 3rd inning run off of Hamels as pitcher Kip Wells tried to help his own cause with the stick by singling and later being driven in on 1st baseman Albert Pujols’ sacrifice fly to centerfield.  Wells had 2 hits in the game and possesses a pitcher’s batting average of .346 for the season.

Then the rains came.  While Hamels was lifted, Wells remained in the game through the 5th inning.  The Phils tied the game on Wells in the 5th inning.  The AP report outlines the inning for Yahoo sports;

Cardinals starter Kip Wells returned to the mound following a 1-hour, 36-minute rain delay before the bottom of the fourth looking for his first victory as a starter in a month. Scratched before his last scheduled start on Tuesday in favor of  Thompson, Wells pitched the final two innings of a 14-inning victory against Kansas City on Wednesday.

Against the Phillies he nearly made it through five innings without giving up a run. Wells walked Carlos Ruiz to start the fifth and got the next two batters out before a wild pitch and Michael Bourn’s single brought Ruiz in to tie the score at 1-1. Bourn also drove in a run in the ninth.

“It’s frustrating,” Wells said. “It’s one of those things where you’re pitching a better game and you get a setback. I knew they would make every move they could to keep me in the game to get the win.”

The big story in this game aside from Bourn’s 2 hits and 2 RBIs and Victorino’s 3 run double was the bullpen.  Ryan Madson and Brian Sanches made the lead stand up by going 2 scoreless innings each and Clay Condrey went a perfect 8th inning.  Antonio Alfonseca came on to pitch the 9th and things got a bit dicey with runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out and sacks loaded with two outs.  But Alfonseca got centerfielder So Taguchi to ground into a game-ending fielder’s choice force on leftfielder Chris Duncan at 2nd base.

In related news, it now seems that Jon Lieber, previously thought to have a right ankle strain, now is diagnosed by MRI as a ruptured tendon in the bottom of his right foot.  And so Lieber’s season and perhaps his Phillies career seems at an end although he is still listed on the 15 day DL.

The AP report on the game also lists that;

Jayson Werth [rf] threw out Ryan Ludwick in the fourth inning for his six assist from the outfield in 24 games.

For the scores, boxscores and recaps on this and all of Sunday’s games,  click here.

The Phillies have Monday off before heading home starting Tuesday for 7 games; 3 against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday through Thursday.  In the series opener, rookie Kyle Kendrick opposes Cincinnati rookie Homer Bailey in Tuesday’s opener..

After the 3 game set with the Reds, the Phils entertain the New York Mets for a 4 game weekend series which includes a Friday doubleheader.

For the scores, boxscores and recaps on this and all of Monday’s games,  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 Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 6:55 am and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary, Phillies and NL East, Analysis, Predictions, etc. 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.