Martinez, 5 Homers Lead Phillies Past Nationals
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Phillies starter Pedro Martinez went 6 2/3 quality innings on Tuesday as the offense registered 5 solo homers, 4 off of Washington’s 25 year old lefthander John Lannon. Leftfielder Raul Ibanez led the power surge with 2 homers. Reliever Brett Myers held the Nationals to 1 hit in 1 1/3 innings relief to get the Phils to the ninth inning. Then Brad Lidge nearly blew another game loading the bases with 1 out, but Ryan Madson came on to get a strikeout, a groundout and his 5th save ending a team 4 game losing string as Martinez and 5 homers led the Phillies past the Nationals by a 5-3 score.
With the win, the Phillies maintained their 6 game lead in the NL East division over 2nd place Florida who beat the Mets. 3rd place Atlanta remained 8 games back although edging Houston. The 4th place Mets dropped to 17 games back with their loss to the Marlins.
Once again, there was no small-ball in the offense as the Phils became only the 12th team in MLB history with 4 players at or above the 20 homer plateau. The Phils notched but 7 hits, 6 off of Lannon and left 4 runners stranded as the offense was comotose for six innings. The homeruns were the total Phillies offense. AP sports reporter Joseph White notes in his game recap for Yahoo sports:
Raul Ibanez went long for the 29th and 30th times this season and Chase Utley hit No. 30, joining Ryan Howard (38) and Jayson Werth in Philadelphia’s 30-homer club for 2009. Werth hit his 32nd, and Carlos Ruiz got his ninth for the Phillies.
The Phillies, who have the major leagues’ highest percentage of runs from homers, became the first team since the 2006 Chicago White Sox to have four 30-homer hitters and accomplished the feat for the first time in franchise history.
The power barrage overshadowed another good start from Pedro Martinez (4-0) and a rare hook in the ninth inning after another shaky outing from Brad Lidge. Ryan Madson struck out Ryan Zimmerman with the bases loaded and the winning run on first and retired cleanup hitter Adam Dunn.
Martinez, craftily mixing plenty of offspeed pitches with an occasional low-90s fastball, allowed three runs and seven hits with four strikeouts and one walks over 6 2-3 innings. The Phillies improved to 6-0 when the three-time Cy Young Award winner starts.
Brett Myers followed with 1 1-3 scoreless innings, but Lidge failed to capitalize on the vote of confidence he received before the game from manager Charlie Manuel. Lidge, who had his 10th blown save of the season in his last appearance on Saturday, retired one batter before a single, a hit batter, a wild pitch and a walk.
Manuel then removed Lidge and replaced him with Madson, who struck out ninth-inning homer specialist Zimmerman and got cleanup hitter Dunn on a groundout to record his fifth save.
Werth and Ibanez homered in back-to-back at-bats in the seventh, followed two batters later by Ruiz, lifting the Phillies from what had been looking like another moribund offensive performance. The NL East leaders had scored only 23 runs in their previous 11 games and had gone 70 2-3 innings without having a lead of more than one run, causing them to lose ground in the race for home-field advantage in the playoffs.
Four of the homers came off John Lannan (8-11), spoiling an otherwise fine outing from the closest thing the last-place Nationals have for an ace. Lannan allowed only four other baserunners in his 6 2-3 innings.
Ibanez’s multihomer game was his fourth of the season and second at Nationals Park. He also singled to finish 3 for 4 and is batting .463 with eight homers and 20 RBIs this season against the Nationals. He is 7 for 10 in his career against Lannan.
Washington scored a first inning run on an RBI single by shortstop Cristian Guzman. They added their 2nd run in the fourth inning on an RBI single by catcher Wil Nieves. Nieves went to 2nd base on Chase Utley’s throwing error on the play and was nailed at the plate by a fine throw from Shane Victorino on pitcher Lannon’s single to center. Centerfielder Willie Harris solved Martinez in the seventh for a 2 out solo homer after which Myers came on to relieve.
Martinez threw 119 pitches in 6 2/3 innings giving up[ 3 runs on 7 hits while walking 1 and striking out 4 for his 4th win as a Phil. Losing pitcher Lannon also went 6 2/3 innings throwing 92 pitches giving up 4 runs on 8 hits while walking 2 and striking out 1. Madson came on record his 5th save in the ninth cleaning up Lidge’s bases-loaded, 1 out mess on 6 pitches to end the game.
For the scores of all of Tuesday’s games, click here.
In Wednesday’s game 2, ace lefthander Cliff Lee hopes to get back on the track which led to his first 5 wins as a Phillie. He’s opposed by starter/ reliever Garrett Mock.
For all of Wednesday’s games, click here.
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