Howard’s 2 Homers Lead Phillies Past Braves
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Phillies’ 1st baseman Ryan Howard, on a roll with 4 homers over his last 4 games, staked young lefthander J.A. Happ to a 4-1 lead on Sunday with a second inning solo blast and a 3 run homer in the sixth, both off of Atlanta’s Javier Vazquez. That was all the Phils needed as Happ and the Phillies bullpen kept the Braves in check despite Happ’s 6 walks. Howard’s 2 homers led the Phillies past the Braves by a 4-1 score as the Phils took 2 of the 3 games.
With the win, the Phils increased their NL East division lead over Florida to 5 games. The Marlins lost to Colorado. Atlanta dropped to 6 games behind while the Mets remained 11 1/2 games back despite their win on Sunday.
After a rain-delay of one and a half hours to start the game, rookie-of-the-year candidate Happ, although walking six, hitting a batter and not having a clean inning in 7 2/3 innings, provided a solid, efficient effort in recording his 9th win vs 2 losses. The 6 walks turned out to inconsequential as the Braves offense, which collected only 3 hits against him and left 9 runners stranded, couldn’t get untracked. Happ kept the Braves mainly hitting the ball on or near the ground and benefitting from a fine defense which turned 2 doubleplays. He threw 117 pitches in the outing, getting 10 groundouts while striking out 3.
Meantime, Howard took care of the offense leading off the second inning by solving Vazquez for a solo homer to centerfield. After Matt Diaz knotted the score at 1-1 with a solo shot to rightfield in the fourth, shortstop Jimmy Rollins and centerfielder Shane Victorino opened the sixth inning with singles. After 2nd baseman Chase Utley struck out, Howard rocketed a 3 run shot to rightfield, his 30th homer and 89th thru 91st RBIs, to provide Happ and the Phils with the winning margin. Howard went 3 for 3 for the game raising to a .269 batting average.
AP writer George Henry notes these stats on Howard for Yahoo sports:
Howard’s multihomer game was his third this season and the 20th of his career, tying the slugger for third place on Philadelphia’s career list with Dick Allen.
Other than Howard’s perfect game at the plate and Victorino’s 2 for 4 with a double, the offense continued to look listless. But fortunately Happ and the bullpen didn’t need additional support.
Reliever Ryan Madson took over for Happ with 2 outs in the eighth and got Diaz on strikes to retire the side. Lefthander Scott Eyre took over in the ninth and retired the first 2 Braves before walking pinch hitter Greg Norton.
Manager Manuel went to closer Brad Lidge, who coughed up a 3-2 lead into a 4-3 loss in Saturday’s game, and it took him 3 pitches to induce 2nd baseman Omar Infante to pop-up to 2nd base to end it. Lidge recorded his 23rd save of the season.
For the scores of all of Sunday’s games, click here.
The Phils have Monday off before coming home for 3 games against Arizona followed by 4 games in New York against the Mets and 3 at Pittsburgh vs the Pirates.
In Tuesday’s opener against the Diamondbacks, Pedro Martinez is opposed by Jon Garland for Arizona.
For all of Monday’s and Tuesday’s games, click here and here.
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