The Phils played much better tonight than they had been but it still wasn't good enough. They tightened up defensively and Joe Blanton was pretty good, holding the Cards to just 2 runs through 7 innings. Then Charlie tried to get him through the 8th inning but it wasn't to be as he allowed 3 runs in the 8th before being replaced by J.C Romero who combined with Jose Contreras to finish the inning. The three runs made it 5-1 St. Louis and all but sealed the Phils fate on this night.
Ryan Howard crushed a solo shot back in the 5th to tie things up at 1, at the time. Unfortunately that homer turned out to be the Phils only score in this one. The Phils had base runners in the 6th and 7th innings but came up empty each time. Most notably with the bases loaded and 2 out in the 7th Charlie Manuel elected to have Blanton bat so he could stay in the game, and he promptly grounded out to end the inning. The Phils never really had another chance to score after that before collecting their 4th straight loss, 5-1 to the Cardinals. Luckily for the Phils Atlanta and New York both lost again tonight so the Phils did not lose any ground in the division or wild card playoff races. Still, they've got to pick it up again and soon or it won't be worth it to look at either of the NL playoff races, because they'll be completely out of it.
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2 comments:
Things arent looking so hot. I thought things were on the upturn the way the Phils were playing going into the All-Star break but I guess I was wrong. Now I'm just hoping for a win.
-to ph1llysports
yeah it seems like they're still on break right now
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