5/29/13
It was a beautiful night in Boston and Cliff Lee was
pitching for the Phillies. Lee stepped on the mound in the final game of this
two game series. In the first game, the Red Sox absolutely slaughtered the
Phillies 9-3. Erik Kratz and Domonic Brown hit homeruns that scored all of the
Phillies runs last game. Tyler Cloyd had a horrendous game that he would like
to forget about. The Phillies relied on Lee to be the stopper in last night’s
game. They expected him to pitch deep into the game since most of the bullpen
was unavailable. Ryan Dempster took the mound for the Red Sox. This year
Dempster has been a Dumpster for the Red Sox. I expect the Phillies to score a
handful of runs against him. Who are we kidding, it’s the Phillies. They don’t
score many runs even when it’s against the crappiest pitchers in baseball like
Alfredo Aceves. Will Lee go the distance or will the Red Sox continue their
offensive barrage?
There were not a lot of runs scored. Michael Young broke out
of his 0-21 slump and hit a solo homerun to start the game and made it a 1-0
Phillies lead. Dustin Pedroia put the Red Sox on the board with an RBI single
that scored Jacoby Ellsbury. There was no scoring until the seventh inning when
Kratz chopped an RBI single to left field that scored John Mayberry Jr. Brown
threaded the needle with a solo homerun in the ninth inning that made it a
final score of 3-1.
Cliff Lee pitched masterfully yet again. He was pitching
quickly and was in a rhythm. He threw a lot of strikes, mixed his pitches and
changed the batters eyesight on where the pitches were thrown. Although Lee
threw 95 pitches through eight innings, I felt he could have gone all nine
innings. If the game were played in Philadelphia, he would have pitched the
ninth. Since it was in Boston, former Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon pitched
the ninth inning. Papelbon came out in a smattering of boos when he was
introduced to Red Sox Nation. I don’t understand why he was booed because he
gave the Red Sox a World Series Championship in 2007. Nonetheless, Papelbon
pitched a clean ninth inning to get his 10th save of the season.
Ryan Dempster pitched well, but I think the Phillies hitters
made Dempster pitch well. Dempster had seven three-ball counts, but only walked
three hitters. Through seven innings, he allowed six hits and struck out four
batters. Junichi Tazawa gave up the homerun to Brown that put the nail in the
coffin. When Tazawa throws a lot of fast pitches, eventually someone is going
to knock one out of the park.
Overall, the Phillies won the game in their fashion. They
pitched well and scored just enough to win. I thought the Phillies plate
discipline was typical. They swung early in the count, but the thing I did like
was that they worked a lot of three-ball counts and walked a few times. Even
working a count can get the starting pitcher out of the game quicker so the
bullpen can be used earlier in the game. I thought the Sox would have scored
another run on a ball that was hit by David Ortiz. He hit a ball to dead
centerfield that was at the warning track at the 420 sign. In many ballparks,
that ball would have been a homerun. Kratz and Ben Revere had decent nights as
they were the only Phillies to get more than one hit in the game. Revere has
been hitting better since he was benched for a few games in the middle of this
month. Revere has a batting average of .342 since May 19. Domonic Brown has had
a solid month of May. He clubbed his eighth homerun this month and has 11 for
the year.
With Kyle Kendrick
taking the mound tonight for the Phillies, do you expect them to win? Sound off
and stay tuned until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment