The Phils continued their series with the Diamondbacks in what was billed to be a pitcher's duel between Dan Haren and "Hollywood" Cole Hamels. Ultimately it lived up to the hype score wise, but Cole Hamels really got the better of Haren allowing just 1 run on 4 hits while striking out 9 in 8 innings while Haren allowed just 3 runs on 4 hits but had to leave after 5 innings because the Phils had already ratcheted up his pitch count to 117. Like last night though it was Diamondback errors that really did in Haren and opened the door to victory for the Phils. Arizona actually had the lead after the 1st inning thanks a solo shot by Ryan Roberts. In the top of the 3rd the "Flyin Hawaiian", Shane Victorino brought the Phils back with a solo shot of his own. In the top of the 5th Hamels himself doubled with one out and a 2 errors and Victorino double later the Phils were up 3-1. Later in the top of the 7th when the Stephen Drew couldn't get the ball out of his glove to start a sure inning ending double play, Victorino scampered safely home again for a 4-1 lead. It stayed that way until Brad Lidge allowed Mark Reynolds to slug a 2 run homer in the 9th, but he cooly retired the side from there for the 4-3 win. Even against the lowly Diamondbacks it was encouraging to see Hamels go deep into a game for the 1st time in a while. If Brad Lidge keeps giving up runs like he did tonight the Phils are going to need Hamels to do that more often down the stretch to save the pen and allow Lidge some time to find himself. The Phils are now 31-15 on the road this season as they wrapped up another series win tonight, and that is just remarkable. Anyway So the Phils are now 58-40 overall and still 7 games up in the NL East.
2 comments:
I watched this one and I really was afraid that Brad Lidge was going to blow the save...again. He definately needs to find his stuff though for the Phillies to go deep into the playoffs.
-to ph1llysports
yeah me too, but he got out of it and hopefully he'll figure it out
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