» Phillies Bumbling Offense Falls to Dodgers’ 1 Hitter

Phillies Bumbling Offense Falls to Dodgers’ 1 Hitter

Another mediocre pitcher took on the appearance of a world beater as L.A. Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda pitched 7 1/3 innings of no-hit ball against the sputtering Phillies offense. Phillies hitters, apparently still impressed with their punchless 3 game sweep of San Diego, slept through this one. Ace Roy Halladay, lacking any offensive backing at all, gave up single runs in the first, second and fifth innings. The Dodgers capped their scoring as, another former Phil who never amounted to much, catcher Ron Barajas came back once again to haunt his former team by solving Halladay with a fifth inning lead off homer. The Phils threatened only in the eighth when rightfielder Jayson Werth led off with a walk and centerfielder Shane Victorino broke up the no-hitter with a 1 out bloop single to shallow rightfield. With 2 outs in the inning, it took lefthander Hong-Chih Kuo 1 pitch to retire the side getting pinch hitter Mike Sweeney on a fielder’s choice grounder in relief of Kuroda. Kuo went clean on the Phils in the ninth to record his 7th save as the bumbling Phillies offense fell to the Dodgers’ by a 3-0 socre on a 1 hitter.

With the loss, combined with Atlanta’s pounding of the Mets, the Phils dropped to 3 games behind the NL East division-leading Braves. The Phils continued to hold a 1 1/2 game lead on San Francisco for the NL wildcard lead as the Colorado Rockies scored 2 ninth inning runs to edge the Giants. The St. Louis Cardinals remained 3 games behind the Phils in the wildcard race after being pounded by Washington. The Florida Marlins remained in 3rd place 10 1/2 games behind the leaders while the Mets hold 4th place falling to 11 games off the pace.

Halladay threw another solid effort, only making 1 mistake — Barajas’s fifth inning leadoff homer. Once again, the Phils failed to provide any offense whatsoever, thus denying ‘The Doc’ in another shot for his 17th win.

1st baseman Ryan Howard took another 0-fer hitting 1 ball solidly, right to the shortstop, while popping out twice. But at least he didn’t strike out.

There’s nothing much else that can be said about this one. Masochists can continue reading by clicking here for the AP game recap for Yahoo.

To view the scores of all of Monday’s games, click here.

In game 2, Kyle Kendrick is opposed by Carlos Monasterios for the Dodgers.

To view the schedule of all of Tuesday’s games, click here.

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