Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. The good was Cole Hamels went another 7 innings, allowing just 1 run on 8 hits while striking out 6. Unfortunately, the Phils didn't score for Hamels at all and he actually ended getting a no decision. Randy Wells, who came in just 4-7 on the season with an ERA over 4, somehow held the Phils scoreless through 7 despite allowing 7 hits. The Phils had runners in scoring position in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 6th innings and failed to cash in every time. Luckily, thanks to Hamels brilliant start and a perfect 8th inning from Chad Durbin that failure to launch if you will, did not come back to bite them.Instead, some more 9th inning magic was in order. Carlos Marmol was perfect for the Cubs yesterday, but not today. He got Greg Dobbs to fly out to start inning then walked Ross Gload and Brian Schneider before striking out Shane Victorino. He then had 2 strikes on Placido Polanco and was within reach of another, albeit imperfect, save.
In his first game back from the DL, Polanco reminded everyone of why the Phils had missed him so much, slapping a single through the hole to score Schneider with the tying run. Of course Schneider should have been out by a mile, but Geovanny Soto dropped the throw home and rally was on. An obviously rattled Marmol threw a wild pitch under Jimmy Rollin's legs to allow Gload to score for a 2-1 lead. Next he intentionally walked Ryan Howard to load the bases for Jayson Werth. Werth too was walked after a long bat and the Phils led 3-1. Finally, after a wild 5 walk outing Marmol was removed in favor of James Russell. Russell got Raul Ibanez to ground out to end the inning, except he failed to cover first to allow another run to score for a 4-1 lead. Finally Andrew Cashner replaced Russell and allowed Cody Ransom to crush a line drive up the middle that Starlin Castro made a spectacular diving play on to end the inning.
So it came down to Brad Lidge time in the bottom of the 9th. Lidge was almost made it as interesting as Marmol had before closing out win. He struck out Mike Fontenot, then made a lucky grab of a ball Castro hit right back at him and almost threw it away, but Ryan Howard managed to get down and grab it for the out. Next Kosuke Fukudome worked a walk to bring Ryan Theriot to the plate and put the tying run in the on deck circle. After another long at bat Lideg got Theriot to pop up but Ransom, not best infielder in the world, erroneously left it for Werth, who was out of position. Somehow Werth managed to stretch out and grab it at the last second, while tumbling over in front of a surprised Ransom. It wasn't a pretty inning or a pretty game for that matter but a win is a win. Speaking of luck the Mets and Braves both lost again tonight to move the Phils into 2nd in the NL East, within 4.5 games of 1st. Sometimes it's better to be luck than good.
2 comments:
A bit of luck never hurts especially when you have so much trouble scoring just 1 run. It may not have been pretty but a win is a win and to make it even better the Braves lost. 1st place here we come!
-to ph1llysports
yeah well I hope so
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