Penny Shuts Out Phillies in Giants Debut
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Brad Penny, acquired by San Francisco in trade after being waivered by the Boston Red Sox, returned to the form that saw him string two straight 16 win seasons together in Los Angeles in tossing an eight inning 5 hit shutout of the Phillies on Wednesday. Back-to-back sixth inning homers off of rookie lefthander J.A. Happ by 2nd baseman Juan Uribe and former Phil centerfielder Aaron Rowand accounted for 3 Giant runs after they scored a single run in the fifth. Aided by offensive support, Penny shut out the Phillies by a 4-0 score in his Giants debut.
With the loss, the Phillies lead over Atlanta dropped to 7 1/2 games over the 2nd place Braveswith their Wednesday loss to the Marlins. 3rd place Florida is 8 1/2 games back while the Mets are 18 1/2 games back in 4th place.
The Phillies offense continues to scuffle and struggle to score runs. Although they have won 6 of their last 10 games, their scoring has been mainly by way of the home run ball. They have left a ton of runners on base and have not scored with small-ball in sometime. Add to the mix that Penny was on and pounding home mid-90’s fastballs throughout his eight innings and 102 pitches.
Happ got himself into second inning trouble as 1st baseman Ryan Garko and Juan Uribe both opened with singles. But Rowand flied out to centerfield and Happ got rightfielder Nate Schierholtz to ground a 2-2 pitch into a short-to-2nd-to-1st doubleplay to evade trouble. Happ then went clean in the third inning, as he had in the first, and got out of a 2 on, 2 out situation in the fourth.
Meanwhile, Penny stifled the Phillies through four innings with the defensive backing of 2 doubleplays as the Giants got a fifth inning leadoff double by Schierholtz who scored on a 2 out single by leftfielder Andres Torres to put the Giants up by 1-0. As things turned out, that was all that Penny really needed.
In the Phillies’ fifth, 1st baseman Ryan Howard slammed Penny’s 1st pitch for a single to centerfield after which Penny walked rightfielder Jayson Werth on 4 pitches. But Raul Ibanez flied out to leftfield and both 3rd baseman Pedro Feliz and Carlos Ruiz flied out to end the only possible threat that the Phils put up the entire game.
In the sixth, Penny got insurance as Happ was solved for Uribe’s 1 out, 2 run homer followed back-to-back by Rowand’s solo dinger as the Giants went up 4-0.
Happ pitched a quality performance but made the two mistakes which cost him. But the burden continues to fall back on an enigmatic, short-circuited offense which is having trouble producing. Happ threw 102 pitches in six innings giving up 4 runs on 8 hits while walking 1 and striking out 7. He deserved a better fate than his 4th loss of the season. 3 Phils relievers threw in the final 3 innings holding the Giants hitless as only 2 reached on walks.
Penny threw eight innings, 103 pitches giving up only 5 hits while walking 1 and striking out 2. Lefthanded reliever Jeremy Affeldt took over in the ninth and went clean on the Phils on 15 pitches striking out 2 to end the game.
Phillies Nation’s Amanda Orr adds these comments on the Phillies current offensive maliase:
You know your offense is going bad when the telecast finds a shot Jupiter before any runs are scored. Perhaps that is where the Phillies offense went. They’ve scored only 11 runs in the last six games. They were shutout for the fifth time this season. The last time they were shutout was on August 1, against tomorrow’s starter, Tim Lincecum.
Andres Torres did what the Phillies did not do: drive in a runner in scoring position. In the fifth inning, the Giants took a 1-0 lead with his RBI single up the middle.
J.A Happ didn’t necessarily pitch poorly, although he did give up four runs for the first time since July 24, when he allowed five runs against St. Louis. He played Houdini for the first four innings, but ran into trouble in the fifth and sixth.
For the scores of all of Wednesday’s games, click here.
The Phils hope for a 2 of 3 game series win in Thursday’s final as Pedro Martinez faces CY Young Award candidate Tim Lincecum who won the award last season and who has pitched consistently well since All Star break but has fallen victim in 4 games to lack of offensive support.
For all of Thursday’s games, click here.
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