Herrera’s two-run double lifts Dodgers over Phillies, 2-1

Veteran Cliff Lee turned in another strong start, but the southpaw’s effort, once again, went for naught as Philadelphia continues to fail to provide any run support and suffered a 2-1 defeat to the visiting Dodgers on Tuesday night.

Los Angeles (35-21), who lead the NL West by four games over the Giants, received seven solid innings from Chad Billingsley and used a two-run double by Elian Herrera with two outs in the eighth innings to pull out the narrow road win.

The Phillies, who fell a game below .500 at 28-29 with the loss, took an early 1-0 lead via Hunter Pence’s single that plated Jimmy Rollins. Rollins led off the frame with a double.
After Jerry Hairston Jr.’s one-out single in the second, Lee retired ten straight until Tony Gwynn singled with two outs in the fifth.

Meanwhile, Billingsley prevented the Phillies from padding their lead as the Dodgers’ starter scattered a few singles and continued to put up zeros until Herrera’s clutch hit.

Cliff Lee, who fell to 0-3 with the loss, allowed just two runs on six hits over 7.2 innings. He struck out a season-high 12 while walking just one.

Chad Qualls relieved Lee and didn’t allow a hit over the last 1.1 innings.

Rollins, Pence, and Wiggington all had two-hit games for Philadelphia.

Chad Billingsley only struck out three, but limited the Phillies to just one run on six hits over seven innings to improve to 3-4.

Josh Lindblom worked a scoreless eighth to set the stage for Kenley Jansen to record his eighth save.

By: Thomas "Bubba" Rosenbaum
MLBCenter.com Staff Writer