Harang Silences Phillies’ Bats in Loss to Reds
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Veteran lefthander Jamie Moyer provided a quality 6 inning outing in his first-ever appearance in Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park keeping the Phillies within striking distance. But Aaron Harang silenced Phillies’ bats their 5-1 Loss to the Reds on Wednesday.
Despite the loss which ended a 5 game unbeaten string, the Phillies maintained their 1 game lead over the Mets who lost again as the Dodgers completed their 3 game sweep.
Harang, who allowed 1 run on 4 hits wile walking 2 and striking out 9 thru seven innings, was never in any serious trouble as everything he threw worked. AP sports writer Joe Kay reports Harang’s own analysis of his pitching for Yahoo sports:
“I kept the ball down moved it around where I wanted to,” Harang said. “I was able to keep them off-balance. I was able to locate my fastball and throw my curveball for strikes early in the count.”
He made only one mistake, giving up a fourth inning leadoff homer to leftfielder Raul Ibanez on a 2-1 pitch. For Ibanez, it was his 14th dinger of the season. The only attempt at a threat by the Phils offense came in the fourth after the homer. 1st baseman Ryan Howard followed with double to rightfield on a 3-0 pitch. Then rightfielder Jayson Werth struck out looking, 1 of 3 times he struck out in the game. Centerfielder Shane Victorino worked Harang for a walk and the Phils had 1st and 2nd base with 1 out. But 3rd baseman Pedro Feliz swung at a 1 strike pitch and grounded into a doubleplay to end the inning.
Other than the fourth inning, the Phils never had more than 1 man on in any inning against either Harang or the Reds bullpen. In fact, Harang retired 9 of the last 11 hitters he faced and the bullpen retired the last 6 Phillies in order in the eighth and ninth innings. Harang threw 109 pitches in evening his record to 4-4 and lowering to a 3.19 ERA.
To get an idea of how dominating Harag was in winning, or for that matter, how inept the Phillies offense was; shortstop Jimmy Rollins and 2nd baseman Chase Utley were a collective 0-8, Ibanez struck out twice, Werth 3 times and Victorino twice. And when the Phils weren’t striking out, they hit 7 ground balls while hitting 5 flies off of Harang.
Meanwhile, Moyer pitched a typical Moyer game. He gave up single runs in the first three innings — all the Reds really needed, with catcher Ryan Hanigan going yard for a solo homer to leftfield in the second inning. But he did his job keeping the Phils in the game. Moyer pitched well enough to win; 105 pitches in six innings, 3 runs, 9 hits, a walk and 2 strikouts, but the offense just couldn’t get started and didn’t produce.
The Reds scored 2 insurance runs in the seventh on reliever Chad Durbin as 2nd baseman Brandon Phillips pounded a 2 run, 2 out triple to centerfield to cap the Cincinnati’s scoring.
For all of the scores of Wednesday’s games, click here.
In Thursday’s series final, Joe Blanton hopes to improve on a series of poor outings thus far this season and to lead the Phillies to a series win. He is opposed by Micah Owings for the Reds.
Following the Reds, the Phils head to New York, this time taking on the Yankees in a 3 game weekend series in the new Yankee Stadium.
For all of Thursday’s games, click here.
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