6/8/13
The Phillies got their fifth win in a row in their last game
against these Brewers and they have been playing some solid baseball against
bad teams. The Phillies poured on four runs in the first three innings of the
game. Delmon Young swatted a solo homerun in the fifth for their fifth run of
the game. The Brewers got one measly run in the eighth inning. Tyler Cloyd was
exceptional in his 6 2/3 innings of work, but the same can’t be said for Wily
Peralta. Cliff Lee took the mound last night against Alfredo Figaro. Lee has
been superb this year with a 7-2 record and an ERA of 2.45. The difference from
last year to this year with Lee is that his offense is scoring runs for him.
Figaro, a reliever, is transforming into a starter due to the number of
injuries the Brewers have to their pitching staff. He started one game this
year at the end of May and pitched poorly. The Phillies lineup didn’t change
and why should it? Michael Young and John Mayberry Jr. had six hits combined in
the first two spots in the lineup. The Brewers switched their right side of the
infield as Juan Francisco and Scooter Gennett are out of the lineup. Rickie
Weeks and Yuniesky Betancourt replaced them. Will the offense continue to keep
scoring runs for Lee or will the Brewers catch fire and knock Lee around?
The offense scored enough runs for Lee to win this game, but
Lee didn’t help his cause. Jimmy Rollins started the game with an RBI single.
Delmon Young blooped an RBI single that made the game 2-0 in the fourth inning.
Erik Kratz hit a two run homerun in the same inning to make it a 4-0 game.
Betancourt put the Brewers on the board with an RBI double. Figaro hit an RBI
groundout that scored Rickie Weeks to make it 4-2. Jean Segura hit a two run
RBI triple to tie the game at four. Segura scored the winning run in the ninth
inning as Aramis Ramirez walked it off with an RBI single to make the final
score 5-4.
Lee was decent through six innings, but I didn’t understand
why Charlie Manuel kept him in the game in the seventh inning. Lee threw 101
pitches in six innings, why keep him in the game to throw 21 more pitches? Does
he not trust the bullpen? Michael Stutes has done a stellar job since being
promoted to the big club. Justin De Fratus has been stellar too. Jeremy Horst
has been pitching better as of late. Why kill their confidence by not using
them in big situations? Is Manuel being too loyal to Lee or did he want to have
a veteran pitcher available out of the bullpen? Otherwise, Lee did a good job
changing the batters’ visions at the plate by mixing his pitches up and down in
the strike zone. He did strike out nine batters, but was un-Cliff like and
walked three batters while allowing eight hits.
Figaro looked bad starting the game, but got better as the
game went on. He struck out six batters in 5 1/3 innings, but gave up seven
hits. For the most part, the Phillies couldn’t keep up with Figaro’s fastball,
which was hovering around 94-97 miles per hour. The Brewers had to use their
bullpen a lot last night, but will that hurt them for tonight’s game? Tonight
the Brewers will have their bullpen pitch against the Phillies. That could
either be a good or bad idea considering the amount of work their bullpen has
pitched this entire series.
Overall, the Phillies should have won this game. You can’t
score four runs early in the game and lose that lead. That’s what separates the
good teams from the bad. There were a few fielding miscues that happened on the
Phillies. First off, Domonic Brown didn’t have to leap at the wall to attempt
to catch Betancourt’s long fly ball when he could have simply extended his arm
out at the wall to make the catch. Freddy Galvis made a bad throw to Kratz in
which Seguara scored from third base on his triple to tie the game. Charlie
Manuel second guessed himself when he took Ryan Howard out of the game in the
eighth inning as Ben Revere pinch ran for him. I say second guessed because
Delmon Young, who should have been pinch hit for by Laynce Nix, grounded into
an inning ending double play to kill the rally. This forced Manuel to take out
his best left handed power hitter in Howard and had to use Nix to play first
base and Revere in centerfield. John Mayberry Jr. shifted to right field when
the changes occurred. I get that Mike Adams was feeling sore, but why did
Manuel keep Horst in the game in the ninth inning and not have De Fratus pitch?
He didn’t pitch much in the first game of this series throwing only five pitches.
Can anything else go
wrong with the Phillies? Sound off and stay tuned later tonight as Kyle
Kendrick takes the mound for the Phillies. Tom Gorzelanny will make a spot
start for the Brewers.
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