The Phillies Edge Mets to Go 3-0 in Series
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Jamie Moyer edged out Oliver Perez in a tight 6 inning battle of lefthanders, both shortstop Jimmy Rollins and leftfielder Pat Burrell stroked first inning homers and the Phillies’ bullpen once again came up big holding the Mets scoreless over the final 3 innings, thanks to a controversial game-ending double play on an interference call, to win a 3-2 nail-biter in game 3 of their 4 game series.
With the win, the Phillies moved to within 3 games of the NL East leading Mets. They remain in second place, two games ahead of the Atlanta Braves who defeated Florida by a 7-4 score. The Phils remain 2 games behind new wild card leading Arizona Diamondbacks who lost a close 3-1 game to the new NL Central Division leading San Diego Padres.
After 3rd baseman David Wright stroked a two-out solo homer to centerfield off of Moyer, Rollins, hitting righthanded, led off with a homer and Burrell followed suit with a clout to centerfield off of Oliver Perez to put the Phillies up by 2-1 after 1 inning.
The score remained the same until centerfielder Carlos Beltran led off the 4th inning with a double to leftfield and scored on 1st baseman Carlos Delgado’s RBI single to leftfield to knot the score at 2-2.
The Phils took the lead for good in the 5th inning as Perez issued a lead off walk to pitcher Moyer. Rollins and 2nd baseman Tadahito Iguchi, replacing Chase Utley who was given the day off by manager Charlie Manuel, singled to load the bases with none out. Burrell, who narrowly missed getting a grand slam on a previous pitch of the at bat as the ball landed just inches foul of the left-field pole, drove in Moyer with the lead run on a sacrifice fly to leftfield, after which Perez struck out 1st baseman Ryan Howard and centerfelder Aaron Rowand to retire the side. Losing pitcher Perez (12-9) struck out 10 for the game, while walking 5 and giving up 3 runs on 5 hits over 6 innings.
Winning pitcher Moyer (12-10) gave up 2 runs on 8 hits while walking 2 and striking out 4 in 6 innings.
The bullpens took over from there. Reliever Jorge Sosa held the Phils to 1 hit over the 7th and 8th innings, while relievers J.C. Romero and Tom Gordon likewise held the Mets scoreless in the 7th and 8th innings respectively. Things got a bit dicey for closer Brett Myers in 9th as the Mets got 2 hits and had runners at the corners with one out and pinch hitter Shawn Green at bat.
After striking out Carlos Delgado, Myers gave up singles to both catcher Paul Lo Duca and pinch hitter Marlon Anderson. Endy Chavez, pinch running for Lo Duca, advanced to 3rd base on Anderson’s single.
But Myers recorded his 13th save by getting Green to ground into a controversial game-ending double play, shortstop to 2nd to 1st.
AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston describes the situation for Yahoo sports;
The Mets had runners on the corners with one out against closer Brett Myers when pinch-hitter Shawn Green hit a slow roller to shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who shoveled the ball to Tadahito Iguchi at second.
Anderson made a rough slide at Iguchi outside the line and knocked the second baseman down as he threw to first. Second base umpire CB Bucknor ruled interference and a double play, sending Anderson into a fit.
He ripped off his helmet and jumped up in protest, and manager Willie Randolph also rushed out to argue.
Anderson demanded an explanation and said he didn’t receive one.
“My foot was on top of the bag when I touched him,” Anderson said. “I haven’t read the rule book tonight, but maybe somebody will have an explanation for it. My foot was on the bag when I made contact with him.”
Crew chief Joe West spoke on Bucknor’s behalf.
“Marlon Anderson went after the second baseman to break up the double play and did not, and could not reach the base, which is what he argued,” he told a pool reporter. “He went out of his way to interfere with the play that created the interference. CB made a great call, made a gutsy call and he didn’t back down from the call at all.”
For the scores, boxscores and recaps on this and all of Wednesday’s games, click here.
Kyle Lohse goes for the Phillies against “El Duque” Orlando Hernandez in the series finale as a Phillies sweep becomes a distinct possibility.
For the scores, boxscores and recaps on all of Thursday’s games, click here.
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