The Phils continued their rise in the standings this afternoon but it wasn't easy. After falling behind 2-0 after 1, the Phils rallied back for 6 runs over the next 2 innings, all of Mets starter, R.A Dickey. In the 2nd Jayson Werth golfed out a solo homer to center as Carlos Beltran drifted into the wall trying to track it down. In the 3rd, Jimmy Rollins doubled and scored on a single by Ross Gload, Raul Ibanez crushed a 3 run homer to almost the same spot as Werth's homer, and Werth doubled and scored on a single by Brian Schneider. So just like that the Phils led 6-2, Dickey's afternoon was over, and Roy Halladay seemed all but assured of his 14th win.
Not so fast. Halladay didn't quite have his best stuff on the day and seemed to tire early, from about the 6th inning on in the sunday heat. To their credit the Mets kept after him and were able to hang around, while the Phils basically shut it down following their 5 run 3rd. They got 1 run in the 6th to cut it to 6-3 and 2 in the 7th to cut it to 6-5. In fact Beltran came to the plate in that inning with 2 on and 2 out and a chance to put the Mets ahead. With what little he had left, Halladay managed to strike him out, his 10th of the day and preserve the 6-5 lead through 7. He deserves some serious credit for going 7 without his best stuff. Anyway from there Ryan Madson pitched a perfect 8th. Then after allowing a leadoff hit Brad Lidge retired the side in the 9th for his 5th straight save. With the win the Phils remain 2 games back in the NL East, but move to within .5 games of the top of the wild card standings.
1 comment:
Horay for run support! Its nice to see all of the Phils runs go to use. Its also crazy how one day the bullpen is terrible and the next they're really good. I would prefer a consistently good pen but whatever. Here comes the new win streak!
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