Phillies Lose Opener to Houston
|
|
|
|
|
The Phillies loaded the bases with one out in the first inning off of Houston Astros starter Woody Williams but let Williams off the hook scoring only single runs in the first and second innings. Williams found his rythym as the Astros took leads of 4-2 and 6-3 enroute to a 7-5 win in the opener of a 3 game series through July 4th. Williams won his 4th game of the season against 10 losses.
The Phillies lost no further ground on Monday to either the Mets or the Atlanta Braves as they both also lost. And as it turned out, Monday was not a good day for the 40-plus club as only Williams and Yankees’ Roger Clemens won out of the 6 over 40’s hurlers who started games. For Clemens, the win was number 350.
After the Phils scored their one run sandwiched within a weird double-play in the first and after leftfielder Pat Burrell’s leadoff 2nd inning solo homer, once Williams found his stride, he limited the Phils to 3 scattered hits from the 3rd through the 7th innings with the Phillies scoring only on rightfielder Shane Victorino’s one-out solo shot in the 6th.
AP Sports Writer Chris Duncan explains how the Phils’ first inning ended;
Williams struggled early. Jimmy Rollins beat out a bunt and Victorino singled to right before he’d thrown five pitches. After Chase Utley grounded out, Williams intentionally walked Howard to get to Aaron Rowand, a .571 hitter this season with the bases loaded.
Rowand flied out to right and Rollins beat Luke Scott’s throw home to make it 1-0. Astros catcher Brad Ausmus alertly threw to Mike Lamb at third base and Victorino was caught in an inning-ending rundown.
The Astros tied the Phils after both early runs with single runs in the bottom of the first and and third innings. Then Houston went ahead for good on a 2 run homer in the 5th by hot-hitting centerfielder Hunter Pence. All runs scored off of losing pitcher lefthander Jamie Moyer who pitched 6 innings giving up 4 runs on 9 hits, walking 2 and striking out 2.
Between the 3rd and 7th innings, outside of Victorino’s homer which cut the score to 4-3, the Phils did absolutely nothing offesively. They sure could have used some of those runs being piled on by outfielder Jason Rees and the Beit Shemesh Blue Sox who are undefeated in the first six games of the new, professional Israel Baseball League. Is it only a question of time before Rees gets the “Howard treatment” from IBL pitchers?
Houston scored two more runs on one hit in the 7th inning on Phils’ reliever Brian Sanches’ two bases loaded walks and their final run in the 8th on leftdfielder Carlos Lee’s solo blast to leftfield off of Jose Mesa.
With the Astros up 7-3 in the 9th inning, things got a bit dicey for Houston reliever Dan Wheeler. With bases loaded and one out, catcher Carlos Ruiz doubled to centerfield scoring Pat Burrell and Ryan Howard and moving Wes Helms to 3rd base.
With the tying runs on 2nd and 3rd, Wheeler was replaced by Trever Miller who got pinch hitter Chris Coste on a groundout to 3rd and Jimmy Rollins on deep flyball to centerfield to end the game.
For the scores, boxscores on this and all of Monday’s games, click here.
In game 2, Adam Eaton tries to knot the series for the Phillies and is opposed by Roy Oswalt. The series finale features young lefthander Cole Hamels, still seeking his 10th win, vs Chris Sampson for Houston.
For the scores, boxscores on this and all of Tuesday’s games, click here.
del.icio.us |
digg |
Furl |
Reddit |
YahooMyWeb |