It was another close call for the Phils tonight and once again they were on the wrong side of it. Jamie Moyer pitched well through 5 innings, allowing just 1 run on 4 hits. However, the Phils could only muster 3 runs of their own in that time, on an RBI double by Jimmy Rollins and a 2 run homer by Ryan Howard. So when Jamie succumbed to hot, muggy night in the 6th and quickly allowed 6 runs the Phils found themselves in a deep 7-3 hole. Perhaps Moyer could have been pulled earlier in the inning before the Phils fell that far behind, but he wasn't and the Phils were left to deal with that. They almost did.
Danys Baez finished the 6th, and Nelson Figueroa and Jose Contreras combined to keep Atlanta scoreless the rest of the night. So the Phils had an opening to mount a rally and steal this one and series from the Braves. First Shane Victorino slammed a solo homer to cut it to 7-4 in the 7th. Then with 2 out in the 8th 3 straight singles from Greg Dobbs, Ross Gload, and Ben Francisco plated another to cut it to 7-5. Unfortunately Gload and Francisco were stranded when Juan Castro popped up to end the inning. Later JRoll just missed a solo shot to leadoff the 9th, instead producing a long loud out number one. Victorino and Ibanez followed with strikeout to leave the Phils rally 2 run short and conclude a tough 7-5 loss.
With that the Phils drop to 6 games out in the NL East for the 1st time since Sept 2007 when they were in 2nd place behind the Mets. Then they put together a miracle September rally to win their 1st of 3 straight division titles. They''ll still have ample opportunity to put together that kind of magic again before the season is over but time is a wasting.
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I got a chance to go to this game and things were looking good until that 6th inning. Then in the 8th innning it looked like a comeback was afoot however as you and I both know it wasnt enough. This series was really big for the Phils and I thought after the first game they had a chance of making some ground but with all these injuries its just too much.
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