Phillies Shut Out in Arizona Final, Winning Streak Ends at 4 Games
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Phillies young lefthander J.A. Happ (7-2, 2.97 ERA) made his case to stay in the rotation with a six inning 2 run quality outing on Wednesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Too bad that the offense was totally shut down by by Yusmeiro Petit (1-5, 6.75 ERA), who had been pounded in a number of previous starts. The Phils offense never got untracked as a dominant Petit shut down the Phils through six innings retiring 13 straight at one point, 18 of the next 20 hitters he faced following shortstop Jimmy Rollins’ lead-off first inning single. 2 Phillies relievers gave up a run each following Happ while 3 D-back relievers maintained an Arizona 4-0 shutout of the Phillies salvaging the series final and ending the Phils latest winning streak at 4 games.
With the loss, the Phillies lead in the NL East division race over 2nd place Florida dropped to 6 games as the Marlins topped 3rd place Atlanta, now 8 games back in the division. The Mets, now 10 games back, picked up 1/2 game on the Phils even as their game with the Colorado Rockies was postponed due to rain.
Perhaps the Phils were due to be shut out after having won 19 of 26 games thus far in July. Happ gave up a game-opening lead off single to shortstop Stephen Drew followed by a 1 out, 2 run homer to rightfielder Justin Upton as the D-backs took a 2-0 first inning lead. After the homer, Happ went on to retire the next 17 of 20 hitters he faced through the sixth inning to match Petit almost pitch-for-pitch.
Phillies Nation’s Amanda Orr provides a recap on the game:
J.A Happ was tacked with his second straight loss, but it was due to a lack of run support. Happ made one mistake; it was to Justin Upton and it landed in the left field bleachers. Happ pitched six innings giving up two runs on three hits and two walks [striking out 5].
Scott Eyre and Tyler Walker each gave up a run out of the bullpen, but it did not matter since the Phillies’ bats were sound asleep. The Phillies left nine men on base, and were 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. Wednesday marked the third time the Phillies have been shutout this season, and the first time since May 6.
Shane Victorino made a fantastic diving catch, but appeared to suffer some sort of injury on the play. He later left the game with a knee contusion.
To date, there have been no subsequent reports as to Victorino’s knee.
The Phils offense mounted one serious challenge in the game but came away with nothing. AP Sports Writer Andrew Bagnato describes the Phils’ seventh inning for Yahoo sports:
After Ryan Howard singled and [Raul] Ibanez doubled to open the seventh, Petit left to a standing ovation from the Chase Field crowd.
Juan Gutierrez came on and struck out Jayson Werth and Greg Dobbs before walking Carlos Ruiz to load the bases. Gutierrez escaped the jam by retiring pinch-hitter Pedro Feliz on a fly to center.
“To come out of that unscathed is pretty much the story of the game in that one inning,” Arizona manager A.J. Hinch said.
For the scores of all of Wednesday’s games, click here.
The Phillies now head for San Francisco to open a 4 game series with the Giants on Thursday. Rodrigo Lopez (3-0, 3.09 ERA) is scheduled to take the mound in Thursday’s opener against lefthander Jonathan Sanchez, who has been mostly pounded thus far, aside from his July 10th complete game, no-hit, 11 strikeout near-perfecto against San Diego.
There is talk of newly acquired former Cy Young Award winning lefthander Cliff Lee possibly being inserted as the starter for the Phillies on Friday against the Giants, but as of this post, Joe Blanton is still slated to oppose 26 year old Ryan Sadowski in game 2 of the series.
For all of Thursday’s games, click here.
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