Pitching, Timely Offense Lift Phillies to Wins Over Rockies
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Demoted, then subsequently recalled Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick came up big on Saturday with a seven inning 1 run, 6 hit masterpiece. The Phillies offense capitalized on Colorado’s recently more earthly ace Ubaldo Jimenez’s 6 walk wildness with some timely hitting during a 7 run third inning where Jimenez was chased, retiring no one, and was charged with 6 of the runs. The Phils gave no respite to the Rockies bullpen either, scoring 4 more runs as Kendrick notched his 6th win, dropped his ERA to 4.60 with the effort as the Phils pounded the Rockies by a 10-2 score.
On Friday, Phils ace Roy Halladay held office hours with a masterful eight inning 5 hit shutout while the offense chased Aaron Cook with a 5 run fifth inning capped by rightfielder Ross Gload’s 1 out 2 run homer. The Phils tacked on an eighth inning run, but “the Doc” had all that he needed to master the Rockies. Lefthander J.C. Romero came on to toss a 7 pitch clean ninth inning to complete a Phillies 6-0 shutout of Colorado in the series opener.
With the 2 weekend wins and a 3 game winning streak, the Phils picked up a game to trail NL East division-leading Atlanta by 6 games as the Braves split their weekend games with the Florida Marlins. The 2nd place Phils picked up a full game on the Mets who are now 7 1/2 games back of division-leading Braves. The Mets split their weekend games with the L.A. Dodgers.
On Saturday, Kendrick breezed while Jimenez ran into trouble in the second as the Phils threatened loading the sacks with 2 out after a single and Jimenez’s first 2 walks. He struck out Kendrick to end the threat unscathed. He walked 4 more Phils in the third and the home team made maximum use of their 3 hits in the inning, a Rockies’ throwing error and a Jimenez wild pitch to plate 7 runs in one of their highest inning uprisings of the season. 6 of those runs were charged to Jimenez while the 7th was charged to reliever Matt Belisle.
With Kendrick on his game big-time, this one was out of the Rockies reach in the third. Leftfielder Raul Ibanez, beginning to catch some fire of late going 4 for 9 with a homer and 5 RBIs over the weekend, added a 2 run sixth inning homer just to make sure and shortstop Jimmy Rollins added an eighth inning RBI single for good measure.
Reliever Jose Contreras gave up an eighth inning run on 2 hits but the Phils were, by this point, totally in control. Recent young minor league call-up Vance Worley tossed a clean ninth inning, in his first MLB appearance, to end the game.
Phillies pitching has been phenominal during this 3 game win streak holding opposition to 2 runs in 29 innings.
For more details on Saturday’s game, click on the AP game recap here.
On Friday, Ibanez and Gload provided much-needed offense and “the Doc” had it on cruise control providing the kind of effort which refreshed the best memories of 2007 through 2009 seasons and perhaps, renewed fan faith that the Phillies are still in this thing — that despite the frequent offensive meltdowns, the Phils have a real shot to 3-peat right up through the World Series.
For more details on Friday’s game, click on the AP game recap here.
To view the scores of all of Friday’s And Saturday’s games, click here and here.
Sunday’s game 3 is a battle of lefthanders as recently reactivated lefthander J.A. Happ opposes Jeff Francis.
To view the schedule of all of Sunday’s games, click here.
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