Phils Looking Solid as Florida Comes to Town

The Phillies continue to play solid ball and lead the NL East as they took care of business against the Cardinals this weekend in St. Louis by taking two of three from them. The Phillies increased their lead to 2.5 games over the Marlins who come into town for three games starting tonight and their lead is 3 over the Mets who seem in disarray right now. The Phillies have a golden opportunity to gain some ground between the Marlins and Mets this week as they battle Florida. First they took on St. Louis over the weekend though.

The Phillies kicked off their series in St. Louis riding a five game win streak, well that five game win streak became history as the Phils ran into Kyle Lohse. Lohse pitched six and a third innings giving up three earned and striking out six as he picked up his 13 th win of the year. The Cardinals were able to get to Cole Hamels who pitched six innings and gave up four earned runs while striking out five. Hamels lost the decision and fell to 9-7 on the year. Joe Mather homered for the Cardinals off of Hamels and Ryan Ludwick and two homers to lead the Redbirds in this game to a 6-3 victory. Pat Burrell hit his 27 th homer to lead the Phillies in this one but it wasn’t enough as the Cards took game 1 of the series.

The Cardinals may have taken game 1, but they wouldn’t win another one after that because in game 2 they couldn’t score enough runs. The Phillies only needed 2 runs and they got them on homers by hometown boy Ryan Howard and Greg Dobbs. Joe Blanton did the rest for the Phillies as he had his best start of the year arguably. Blanton allowed one run, a solo homer to NL player of the week, Ryan Ludwick, on four hits and he struck out five in seven innings in picking up his first win as a member of the Phillies. Braden Looper pitched for the Redbirds, he gave up two earned in seven innings but the offense couldn’t support him at all.

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The finale of this game was seen on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball as Brett Myers battled Todd Wellemeyer. It was exactly what everyone anticipated as both teams had a pitcher’s duel through seven innings, but with the Cardinals leading courtesy of ANOTHER Ryan Ludwick homer the Phils were able to get some offense going against the Cardinals’ bullpen. Shane Victorino blasted a shot to right field for a three run homer to give the Phillies a 5-2 lead in the eighth, but the ninth inning got interesting. With the Phillies leading 5-3 Brad Lidge came into the game. Lidge gave up a couple of hits and then he leveled Yadier Molina with a 1-2 count to load the bases, but the Cardinals couldn’t get anything across as Lidge bounced back to strike out Stavinoha and Joe Mather to end the game and complete his 28 th save in 28 chances this year.

Next up the Phillies welcome the Florida Marlins to Citizens Bank Park for a crucial three game set. The Phillies open the series with a 2.5 game lead over Florida and they could really gain some ground with a good showing here against Florida. The pitching probables are as follows:

J. Johnson (1-0) vs. J. Moyer (10-6)
A. Sanchez (1-0) vs. K. Kendrick (9-5)
C. Volstad (2-2) vs. C. Hamels (9-7)

By Andrew Nuscis
Philadelphia Phillies & Tampa Bay Rays Correspondent

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