The Phils completed their series with the Braves tonight. Joe Blanton got the start and was brilliant allowing just 1 run on 3 hits while striking out 7 in 7 innings. Meanwhile, Chase Utely slugged a solo homer in the bottom of the 4th, and Carlos Ruiz slapped a 2 run double in the bottom of the 7th to give the Phils a 3-1 lead heading into the 8th inning. There Ryan Madson and Scott Eyre almost combined to give it away. With the score 3-2 and runners on 1st and 2nd, the Braves seemed primed to pull the comeback. Instead off a groundball by Brian Mcann, Jimmy Rollins helped turn a huge double play, with the rare 2nd to short, to 3rd base play and the lead stayed 3-2 heading into the 9th. There, in came Brad Lidge to get the save and he did again, with a perfect 1-2-3 inning. Hopefully this means Lidge is finally headed in the right direction because the Phils are going to need him down the stretch, especially if they keep leaving runners on base like they did tonight. In fact they left the bases loaded just an inning before Ruiz's double. Sure they're not really contact hitting team so that is prone to happen at times, but you just wish it would happen less often. Speaking of Ruiz, he was incredible tonight going 3 for 3 with 2 RBIs, and sparkling defense as always. Anyway so the Phils move to 75-53 overall now and back to 8 games up in the NL East.
2 comments:
Boy does it feel good to have such a strong rotation and it certainly doesnt hurt having people like J-Roll turning an unconventional DP, and even Brad Lidge decided to come in on the act and have a 1,2,3 inning.
-to ph1llysports
yeah it was a good night all around
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