Phillies Beat Cubs in 13th Inning on Werth’s Walk-Off Homer
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Phillies starter Joe Blanton and Chicago’s Rich Harden engaged in a titanic seven inning pitching duel on Tuesday, each giving up a run and a few hits. Cub reliever Jeff Samardzija retired the first 2 Phillies in the thirteenth inning before walking 1st baseman Ryan Howard and leftfielder Raul Ibanez. Rightfielder Jayson Werth then nailed a 1-1 pitch as the Phillies beat the Cubs in the 13th inning by a 4-1 score on Werth’s walk-off homer for their 10th straight win.
With the win, the Phils maintain a 6 1/2 game lead over 2nd place Atlanta in the NL East division race. The Florida Marlins are close behind the Braves in 3rd place at 7 games out after edging San Diego. The Mets dropped to 10 games off the pace in 4th place after being shut out by Washington.
Shortstop Jimmy Rollins got the Phils on the board first with a lead-off third inning homer to rightfield off of Harden after getting ahead 3-0 in the count. The Cubs tied the game in the fourth on a 2 out, RBI double to left centerfield by rightfielder Kosuke Fukudome, only 1 of 5 hits given up by Blanton who walked none and struck out 5 through seven innings. Blanton threw 102 pitches in another brilliant outing, 3 days after throwing 22 pitches in a Saturday rainout in Miami against the Marlins.
Blanton’s former Oakland A’s teammate Harden was nearly as good going seven innings giving up only Rollins’ homer, on 4 hits. He threw 117 pitches while walking 2 and striking out 6.
Ryan Madson and closer Brad Lidge had easy eighth and ninth innings respectively with Madson going clean in the eighth and Lidge hitting a batsman with 1 out in the ninth before inducing a grounder which bounced off his leg to shortstop Rollins who turned a doubleplay.
Only the 1 Cub reached from the eighth inning on as the Phils bullpen was close to perfect. Chan Ho Park pitched three clean innings and Clay Condrey threw a clean thirteenth inning on 8 pitches to earn his 6th win of the season.
Reliever Jeff Samardzija got centerfielder Shane Victorino to fly out to leftfield on a 1-1 pitch before going to a full count on 2nd baseman Chase Utley who flied out to centerfield. Samardzija then walked Howard on 4 pitches and Ibanez followed drawing a walk.
AP Sports Writer Rob Maaddi’s game recap for Yahoo sports described the scene as the Phils winning streak reached 10 games, “their longest winning streak in 18 years. They won 13 in a row from July 30 to Aug. 12, 1991″:
Werth then connected on a 1-1 pitch, launching his 21st homer into the seats in left. Werth circled the bases and stomped on home plate before getting mobbed by his teammates.
The winning dinger was Werth’s first career walk-off homer.
In other related Phillies news;
Pedro Martinez has taken a “really big step” forward after throwing 64 pitches over four innings in a simulated game.
He will throw off a bullpen mound Thursday, and if that goes well, will have another simulated game or pitch in a minor league game Sunday.
For the scores of all of Tuesday’s games, click here.
In Wednesday’s series final, veteran lefthander Jamie Moyer battles it out with Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano.
The Phils entertain the San Diego Padres on Thursday for a single game.
For all of Wednesday’s games, click here.
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