Dodgers Pound Moyer as Phillies Offense Takes Siesta
|
|
|
|
|
The Dodgers’ offense pounded lefthander Jamie Moyer for 5 first inning runs on 5 hits and a hit batsman while sending 9 men to the plate. Shortstop Rafael Furcal chased Moyer in the second with a leadoff solo shot. The Phillies offense mounted threats in only the second and seventh innings, both falling short, as the offense took a siesta for the rest of the game as the Dodgers put game 3 in the win column by a 7-2 score.
AP sports writer John Nadel described the Dodgers’ first inning for Yahoo sports;
The Dodgers had a 1-0 lead by the time Moyer had thrown five pitches on singles by Rafael Furcal, Andre Ethier and [Manny] Ramirez. Casey Blake singled in another run before [Blake] DeWitt lined a 2-2 pitch into the right-field corner to clear the bases and send the towel-waving, blue-clad fans at Dodger Stadium into a frenzy.
After the 5 run outburst in the first, Furcal solo-homered to open the second and the Dodgers scored their 7th run in the fourth on a Nomar Garciaparra single after two 1 out walks.
Aside from catcher Russell Martin being hit by a pitch twice, Phillies centerfielder Shane Victorino nearly being leveled by rookie starter Hiroki Kuroda and the benches-clearing near-melee which resulted, there was not much to the game, surely not much good in it for the Phils who mailed in their offense through most of the game.
1st baseman Ryan Howard went 2 for 4 with a run scored as he was involved in both innings where the Phils scored single runs. In the second inning, he doubled to rightfield and scored on 3rd baseman Pedro Feliz’s single.
In the seventh, when the Phils mounted their only opportunity to do heavy scoring, Howard followed 2nd baseman Chase Utley’s leadoff double to leftfield with a single to right. leftfielder Pat Burrell followed Howard with a single to shallow centerfield scoring Utley and putting runners on 1st and 2nd with still noone out.
Kuroda, who had pitched a gem until then only allowing the Phils a run on 2 hits through six innings, got the win although exiting a this point for reliever Cory Wade who struck out rightfielder Jayson Werth, got Feliz to fly out to centerfield and got pinch hitter Greg Dobbs to ground out to shortstop to end the threat.
The 45 year old Moyer deserves a pass for the 1 1/3 inning pummelling he took on the merit of all he’s done this season with a record of 16-7 and 3.71 ERA. But I’m seeing numerous blogs suggesting that he should not get another start in the NLCS, regardless of how many games it goes to. I had hoped that Moyer would have had the kind of outings in the playoffs that would put him in contention for the CY Young award. But off of both the loss to Milwaukee in the Division round as well as the pounding he took here, I just don’t know regarding the Cy Young.
By and large, pitching has been a strong suit so far for the Phils in this series as well as in the Division series. Clay Condrey was workmanlike in getting the side out in the second. J.A. Happ held up through 3 innings in his post-season playoff debut giving up a run on 4 hits while walking 2 and striking out 2. Scott Eyre, Chad Durbin and J.C. Romero who allowed only 3 Dodgers to reach through the final 3 innings, 2 on walks and 1 hit batsman.
The Phillies offense has to come alive again if they are to take this series. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who is a woeful 1 for 13 including 6 strikeouts in this series, must regain his form from the Milwaukee series as the catalyst for the Phils offense. I’ve seen this refrain on many a blog today; “as Rollins goes, so go the Phillies.” To view the play-by-play on the game, click here and here.
On Monday, Joe Blanton is listed to start for the Phils while the Dodgers will bring back Derek Lowe on 3 days rest. The teams have the day off on Tuesday before Cole Hamels and Chad Billingsley oppose each other Wednesday in the final of the 3 games in L.A. The series will return to Philadelphia on Friday and Saturday for games 6 and 7 if necessary.
For the scores, boxscores and recaps on Monday’s and Tuesday’s games, click here and here.
del.icio.us |
digg |
Furl |
Reddit |
YahooMyWeb |