Phillies Beat Brewers Again on Victorino’s Slam, Myers’ Pitching
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Brett Myers got up off of the floor during an ugly first inning to retire 16 of the next 17 Brewers he faced. Centerfielder Shane Victorino made the second inning ugly for lefthander C.C. Sabathia by pounding a 2 out grand slam homer on a 1-2 pitch to stake Myers to a 5-1 lead which held up as the Phils beat the Brewers by a 5-2 score to take a 2-0 lead in their NL Division series.
Meanwhile, the L.A. Dodgers pummelled Carlos Zambrano and 3 Chicago Cub relievers as Chad Billingsley held the Cubs in check for a 10-3 win and a 2-0 lead in the other NL Division series.
Myers looked primed for another fiasco following a near disastrous first inning. Phillies Nation’s Tim Malcolm sums up Myers’ turn-around;
Myers, who settled in after a tough first inning… was dominant against Milwaukee. He kept the ball low, he mixed his pitches, he wasn’t afraid to throw balls. In all, he induced 10 ground ball outs and four strikeouts in seven solid innings of two-hit ball.
AP sports writer Rob Maaddi recaps the game this way for Yahoo sports;
Brett Myers rankled Sabathia with a pesky at-bat and dominated the rest of the Brewers from the mound…
The Brewers missed an opportunity to break it open in the first after Myers walked J.J. Hardy to force in a run with one out. But Myers escaped further trouble by getting Corey Hart to hit into a home-to-first double play on a bouncer to the mound.
“That was the turning point,” Brewers manager Dale Sveum said.
Sabathia had all his pitches working in the first. Victorino doubled with one out and stole third, but Sabathia struck out Chase Utley and Ryan Howard to end the threat. Utley couldn’t touch Sabathia’s off-speed stuff and Howard had no chance against a 96 mph fastball.
Sabathia was uncharacteristically erratic in the second and the Phillies took advantage. Jayson Werth lined a one-out double to left-center and Pedro Feliz followed with an RBI double down the left-field line to tie it at 1.
After Carlos Ruiz grounded out, Myers kept the inning going by working a walk. Digging in, choking up and crouching, Myers drew cheers for fouling off a 1-2 pitch after wildly missing the first two pitches.
He fouled off two more during the at-bat and earned a standing ovation from an appreciative crowd that understood the importance of making Sabathia throw more pitches.
“I know I’m a terrible hitter,” Myers said. “It was one of those freakish things where I was able to lay off his good pitches.”
Sabathia then walked Jimmy Rollins on four pitches to load the bases. That brought up Victorino, who had a career-high 14 homers this season. Victorino fell behind 1-2 before driving a hanging cutter into the seats in left to give the Phillies a 5-1 lead. The Flyin’ Hawaiian raised his arm in the air as he circled the bases with his father watching in the stands.
“I started running, looked up and saw (Ryan) Braun stopped and thought, ‘Did that really happen?”’ Victorino said.
The sellout crowd of 46,208—the largest in the five-year history of Citizens Bank Park—went wild, waving their “Fightin’ Phils” rally towels and bringing Victorino out of the dugout for a curtain call.
Hardy doubled and scored on Craig Counsell’s RBI groundout to cut it to 5-2 in the seventh.
Myers allowed two runs and two hits in seven innings, pulling the Phillies within one win of the NL championship series. Ryan Madson and J.C. Romero worked the eighth, and Brad Lidge had a suspense-free ninth for a change.
[Prince] Fielder was the tying run when he came up against Romero in the eighth, but he shattered his bat on a weak grounder to second base. [Brad] Lidge tossed a perfect ninth for his second save in the series.
The Phillies had a chance for more runs in the fourth. After Sabathia retired both Ruiz and Myers, shortstop Jimmy Rollins slammed a double to leftfield. Victorino, who had Slammed the inning before, was intentionally walked and worked a double-steal with Rollins. Utley was then walked to load the sacks chasing Sabathia. Reliever Mitch Stetter came on to fan Howard on 4 pitches to end the threat.
Victorino’s Grand Slam was the first post-season slam in Phillies history and Myers added a 2 out fifth inning single as the Phils loaded the bases threatening yet again. But Rollins lined out to 1st base to retire the side.
For all of the scores, boxscores and recaps on Wednesday’s games, click here.
Pitching assignments appear to line up like this so far for the coming 3rd game, and 4th game (if needed) of the series; Saturday’s game 3 pits 45 year old lefthander Jamie Moyer, who now has clinched NL East division titles in the last 2 seasons for the Phillies, against Dave Bush. The Phils have yet to name their Sunday starter, although Yahoo sports indicates that they may start ace lefty Cole Hamels, on 3 days rest if need be, against Jeff Suppan.
For all of the scores, boxscores and recaps on Friday’s and Saturday’s games, click here, and here.
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