Sunday, August 9, 2009

Phillies Recap: August 9, 2009

Florida Marlins 12, Philadelphia Phillies 3

The Phillies are not playing like the defending champions of baseball. Right now, they aren't even playing like a playoff contender. The Florida Marlins came into town and punched the Phillies in the mouth, sweeping the three game series and cutting the NL East lead down to a mere four games. After all the dust settled, the Phillies dropped the final game to the Marlins, by a score of 12-3.

Jamie Moyer (10-9) was not his dominant self against the Marlins, as their hitters were more patient than usual. Moyer pitched to contact and surrendered three earned runs on 11 hits over five plus innings. In an ugly seventh inning, the Phillies gave up six more runs and lost control of the game. After a sequence of innings that featured some highly questionable umpiring, the Phillies' Shane Victorino was ejected in centerfield by the home plate umpire, Ed Rapuano.

The Fish, behind Josh Johnson (11-2), were patient against Jamie Moyer and finally broke through with three runs in the fifth inning. Johnson, pitched well in six innings, giving up just one earned run and scattering four hits. The Marlins bullpen, which had pitched well all weekend, came in to seal Johnson's 11th win of the season. Overall, this is exactly what the Marlins wanted out of this series in Philadelphia.

All in all, this was a disastrous weekend for the Phillies, who let the Marlins back into the race in the NL East. The lead is now just four games as the Phils hit the road to begin the stretch run of the season. They will have an off day tomorrow to regroup, and then will need to come out firing and swinging to get back in the winning mode. Overall, the team is just 3-7 in their last 10 games.

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