6/7/13
The Phillies have been playing good baseball as of late.
They were on a four game winning streak; their longest winning streak of the
season. They are in second place with a record of 30-30. The Phillies have
improved with their plate discipline and have been walking more often than they
had throughout the year. Speaking of improvements…how about Domonic Brown? He’s
hit 10 homeruns in his last 12 games and has 18 homeruns right now. The Phillies
started their 10 game road trip last night as they traveled to Milwaukee to
take on the Brewers. The Brewers are in dead last in the NL Central. The
Brewers have an offensive lineup, but they have terrible pitchers on their
roster. In fact, they lost their closer Jim Henderson because he has an injured
hamstring and was placed on the 15-Day disabled list. Ryan Braun, Jean Segura,
Carlos Gomez, Norichika Aoki are having solid years at the plate. One player to
keep an eye on is Jonathan Lucroy as he tormented the Phillies the last time
these two teams met. Tyler Cloyd started for the Phillies as Wily Peralta took
the mound for the Brewers. The Brewers changed their right side of the infield
as new first baseman Juan Francisco will start and hit seventh and rookie
second baseman Scooter Gennett will start and hit eighth. The Phillies changed
their lineup as well. Michael Young is leading off as Ben Revere was apparently
benched due to either his poor baserunning in the final game against the Miami
Marlins or that he’s been in a slump in the early stages of June. John Mayberry
Jr. will take Revere’s place in centerfield and hit second. Will the Phillies
continue their consistent hitting or will the Brewers bring the Phillies back
to reality?
The Phillies started off this game scoring two runs in the
first inning. Ryan Howard hit a sacrifice fly and Peralta threw a wild pitch
that allowed Mayberry Jr. to score from third base. In the next inning,
Mayberry Jr. scorched a ball into the gap in right centerfield which allowed
Cloyd to score all the way from first base to make it a 3-0 game. They say that
it’s always bad to walk the pitcher, which is what happened to Cloyd. Erik
Kratz grounded into a fielder’s choice in the third inning which scored Domonic
Brown from third and it was 4-0. Delmon Young hit a solo homerun in the fifth
inning to make it a 5-0 game. The Brewers scored a run in the eighth inning on
an RBI groundout by Lucroy. The Phillies won by a final score of 5-1 and their
record sits at 31-30. It is the first time all year that the Phillies have a
winning record. They also extended their longest winning streak of the season
to five games.
Cloyd pitched an exceptional game. He walked a lot of
hitters, but did not allow many hits to the Brewers. His location was decent,
but I thought home plate umpire Dan Iassogna was inconsistent with the strike
zone for both pitchers in this game. Cloyd walked five batters, but allowed
four hits in 6 2/3 innings. The bullpen didn’t let this game get out of hand.
Justin De Fratus pitched to one batter to finish off the seventh inning. Mike
Adams gave up the lone run to the Brewers in the eighth and Antonio Bastardo
sealed the win in the ninth.
Peralta had a terrible game. The Phillies were very patient
early in the game against Peralta. He allowed seven hits and walked four
batters in five innings. The bullpen had to come in early for the Brewers. This
benefited the Phillies because the Brewers will most likely have their entire
bullpen pitch on Saturday since they have not announced an actual starter for
that game. Donovan Hand and Burke Badenhop pitched a combined four innings out
of the bullpen and erased the damaged that Peralta started.
Overall, I felt the Phillies could have scored more runs in
the first inning, but they won the game and that’s what matters. They got some
help from the Brewers due to poor fielding by Gennett. Gennett allowed the
Phillies to score their first three runs. I didn’t understand why Mike Adams
pitched in a 5-0 game in the eighth inning. It’s not like he needed to get in
some work and he could always use some rest. This game proved to me that the
Brewers are a team that relies on hitting the long ball to get their offense
clicking. Otherwise, they hit singles and call it a night.
Can the Phillies go
for win number six in a row with Cliff Lee pitching tonight? Sound off and stay
tuned when Lee starts for the Phillies and Alfredo Figaro will start for the
Brewers.
No comments:
Post a Comment