Phillies Edge Nationals, Clinch NL East; Mets, Brewers Tied for Wild Card
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Lefthander Jamie Moyer, all 45 years of him, repeated on Saturday, clinching a Phillies NL East title for the 2nd straight season with a 4-3 win. He gave up 1 run on 6 hits in his six inning outing as rightfielder Jayson Werth solo homered in the fifth inning, Pedro Feliz doubled in what turned out to be the winning run in the eighth and Brad Lidge eluded a 1 out, bases-loaded jam in the ninth by getting Nationals’ 3rd baseman Ryan Zimmerman to ground into a game-ending short-to-2nd-to-1st double play.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Cubs upended the Milwaukee Brewers by a 7-3 score throwing the NL Wild Card into a tie between the Brewers and the Mets with the last games of the rgular season to be played on Sunday.
On Sunday, while the Mets throw Oliver Perez against Florida’s Scott Olsen in a duel of lefties, Carlos Zambrano will be opposing lefthander C.C. Sabathia in a battle of aces with both the Mets and Brewers hoping to take the Wild Card without the necessity of a Monday tie-breaker.
With Moyer and young lefthander John Lannan wrapped in a 0-0 duel, the Phillies broke through in the fourth for 2 runs on 3 hits.
AP sports writer Rob Maaddi recaps the Phillies’division title clinching game for Yahoo sports;
By the time the Phillies came to the plate in the first, Johan Santana already had pitched the Mets to a 2-0 victory over Florida. With no reason to watch the out-of-town scoreboard, the Phillies took care of their own business.
Not known for their situational hitting, the Phillies used a pair of sacrifice flies to take a 2-0 lead in the fourth.
Utley fisted a single over the second baseman’s head to start the inning. After [Ryan] Howard dropped a single to left to put runners at the corners, [Pat] Burrell’s sacrifice fly gave the Phillies a 1-0 lead. [Shane] Victorino followed with a single and [Pedro] Feliz walked to load the bases. Carlos Ruiz’s sacrifice fly made it 2-0.
[Anderson] Hernandez cut the deficit in half with a two-out RBI double off right fielder Werth’s glove in the fifth. Werth answered in the bottom half with an opposite-field homer to right.
Jamie Moyer (16-7) allowed one run and six hits in six innings, matching Hall of Famer Phil Niekro for most wins by a pitcher 45 or older. Niekro, a knuckleballer, had 16 wins at 45 and 46 while pitching for the New York Yankees in 1984-85.
Moyer easily could’ve won 20 games with a little more run support. He had a stretch of 14 consecutive starts in which he allowed three runs or less, but only went 5-4 in that span.
Relying on his typical assortment of slow stuff and barely-80s fastball, Moyer kept the Nationals off-balance. The native son also earned the win in last year’s clinching game against Washington. Moyer grew up in nearby Souderton and played hooky from school to attend the Phillies’ victory parade on Broad Street in 1980. He’d like to be riding on the float this time.
“Hopefully, we can build off what we did last year and go deep,” Moyer said.
Nationals starter John Lannan (9-15) gave up three runs and seven hits in five innings
Chad Durbin pitched a scoreless seventh and Ryan Madson allowed one run in the eighth, helped by an outstanding catch by Rollins.
With runners at second and third and no outs, [Jimmy] Rollins ran a long way to make an over-the-shoulder catch on Lastings Milledge’s sacrifice fly to shallow center that cut the Phillies’ lead to 3-2.
Center fielder Shane Victorino was shaken up after Rollins ran into him, but stayed in the game. He singled and scored an insurance run on Feliz’s RBI double in the eighth.
Anderson Hernandez blooped an RBI single to cut it to 4-3 in the ninth. Cristian Guzman followed with a single to load the bases with one out, but Rollins stopped the rally with a clutch play.
Rollins made a sliding stop with the bases loaded to start a game-ending double play, and the Philadelphia Phillies clinched their second consecutive NL East title by holding off the Washington Nationals 4-3 on Saturday.
Moyer threw 89 pitches during his six innings giving up 1 run on 6 hits while walking 1 and striking out 1 to finish the regular season with a nifty 3.78 ERA and, by my account, in the running for the Cy Young Award. Closer Brad Lidge notched his 41st save in 41 opportunities.
It’s been quite a season; a season where the Phils proved conclusively that 2007 was no fluke, no aberration and that they are “the team to beat”, notwithstanding Santana.
For all of the scores, boxscores and recaps on Saturday’s games, click here.
Ace lefthander Cole Hamels is still scheduled, as of this post, to oppose lefthander Odalis Perez on Sunday although it is likely that the Phils will opt to scratch him from this start to rest him for the playoffs. They have young lefthander J.A. Happ available to pitch on 6 rest or they could go with giving Kyle Kendrick a shot at redemption in the regular season finale.
For all of the scores, boxscores and recaps on Sunday’s games, click here.
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