Despite having tossed 6 complete games this season Roy Halladay came into tonight, inexplicably, still looking for his 10th win of the season. Yes, even Halladay can't win consistently without a little run support. The run support wasn't much better for him tonight but it didn't matter. In one of his most dominating outings of the season, Halladay tossed his 7th complete game while holding the Atlanta Braves to just 1 run - Chipper Jones' solo homer in the 1st inning, on 5 hits, and striking out 7. He did so on just 93 pitches so it really was a thoroughly dominant performance. The Braves just weren't able to figure Halladay out on this night. He was a step ahead of them the whole way and good pitching always beats good hitting.
Anyway, despite Halladay's greatness the Phils still almost lost this one. They actually trailed 1-0 heading into the bottom of the 6th inning. Then Greg Dobbs got his biggest hit of the season, smashing a 2 out 2 run homer off Derek Lowe for a 2-1 Phils lead. Later in the 8th inning after a botched attempt at a suicide squeeze, Jayson Werth wound up scoring from 2nd on a 2 out a single by Juan Castro, that got just through Jones. That gave the Phils a 3-1 lead and for Halladay that was enough to close it out. It's a big win for the Phils as they move to 43-38 overall and now within 4 games of 1st in the NL East. This was the 81st game or halfway point of the season for the Phils and believe it or not at 43-38 overall they have the same record this year that they had at this point last year and in 2008. So perhaps there's not so much to reason to worry about them after all. We shall see as this important series rolls on at the Bank
2 comments:
Halladay is a pretty bigtime pitcher and he makes every start count. This series is huge for the Phils to remain in contention in this competetive NL East because its aways nice to have momentum going into the All Star break.
-to ph1llysports
yeah momentum going into the all star break can be a big boost sometimes
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