Phillies Recap: August 8, 2009

Florida Marlins 6, Philadelphia Phillies 4

The Phillies offense waited out the Marlins rookie Sean West, but left a lot of runners on base all night. Meanwhile, Cole Hamels battled command problems and lots of foul balls and departed the game early as well. In the end, the Fish squeezed out another tight win, as they defeated the Phillies 6-4.

After surrendering an early homerun, Hamels (7-7) looked like he had his good stuff tonight. However, as the night wore on, he lost some control and fought a high pitch count, giving up four earned runs over 5 1/3 innings. Tyler Walker came in to finish the sixth, but Chan Ho Park surrendered two more runs which proved to be the difference in the game. All night, the Marlins got good swings against Phils pitching.

Sean West (3-4) didn't fare much better than Hamels as he went just four plus innings, giving up three runs on seven hits. The Phillies seemed to lack the one knock-out punch to really break the game open, and as such, they let the Marlins hang around. The Florida bullpen was sharp again as the Phillies could only muster one ninth-inning run, despite multiple opportunities. Leo Nunez recorded his second save of the series.

It was another frustrating loss for the Phillies, who stranded over 10 runners on base and did not come through with runners in scoring position. The Marlins have now won the first two games of the series and moved within five games of the NL East lead. They will be sending their best pitcher, Josh Johnson tomorrow afternoon, so Jamie Moyer will have his work cut out for him. The Phillies will look to Moyer to end their two-game skid and finish off the homestand 3-3.

Phillies Recap: August 4, 2009

Colorado Rockies 8, Philadelphia Phillies 3

Jamie Moyer battled incosistency all night and the Colorado Rockies got the early jump on the Phillies. After the Phillies cut an early defecit in half, the Rockies offense unloaded in the sixth inning with four runs, winning the game 8-3. The Rockies' Jason Hammel evened his record as 6-6 as Moyer fell to 10-8.

The start was not what Moyer wanted as he got two batters into the sixth before being lifted for Rodrigo Lopez. Moyer gave up a secon-inning homer to Garrett Atkins and it was all downhill from there. He was tagged for six earned runs in five innings, allowing 10 base runners and striking out three. Lopez, in his first appearance out of the bullpen was not impressive as he allowed two of Moyers' runs to score, then gave up two of his own. Tyler Walker and Brad Lidge each added a scoreless frame, but the game was decided by that point.

Hammel on the other hand was much more impressive as he scattered nine hits in 6 2/3 innings, while striking out six and not walking a batter. Jimmy Rollins provided one of the few offensive bright spots for the Phillies, mashing a monster two-run homerun to centerfield in the fifth. The Phillies would go on to add another insignificant run in the sixth. Once again, the impatience of their hitters leads to a rough offensive night, and the middle of the order produced mostly strikeouts and groundouts.

However, the real story here is the rough start by Jamie Moyer. The soft-tossing lefty never found a comfort zone and saw his team draw some boos late in the game. The Phillies fall for the fifth time in six games and are now 59-45 but maintain their five game lead in the NL East. They will faceoff again with the Rockies tomorrow night as both teams now look for their 60th win of the season.