The Phils continued to roll in Atlanta this weekend, where just about everything went right with the exception of a weak start by Cliff Lee in game one. The Phils took two out of three.
Cliff Lee struggled in game one and the Phils fell 6-3. The Phils jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first thanks to singles by Victorino and Polanco to start the game and extended the lead to 3-0 in the second with the help of an error by Alex Gonzalez after Ruiz started the frame with a single. Lee was just off. He gave up three runs in the second and was charged with three more in the third. Overall he allowed ten hits and a walk and didn’t make it out of the fourth. The Phils didn’t score after the second inning, although Bastardo did have a memorable day. He went two scoreless innings and struck out six.
Oswalt was much better in game two, allowing two runs over six innings as the Phils won 10-2. The Phils were up 3-2 before putting five on the board in the top of the seventh with the help of a pinch-hit grand slam by Carlos Ruiz. Victorino went 4-for-5 in the game and Schneider started behind the plate and hit a two-run homer in the fourth.
Hamels was awesome yesterday as the Phils clinched the series with a 3-0 win. He gave the Phils seven shutout innings and Victorino went 3-for-4, driving in one of the Phillie runs and scoring two of them. The bullpen went two scoreless innings, capping a magnificent series for the relievers in which they didn’t allow a run in 9 2/3 innings. For the season, they’ve now thrown to a 1.47 ERA and a 1.01 ratio, striking out 24 in 30 2/3 innings.
The Phils improved to 7-2 on the year with yesterday’s win.
Hamels got the start and went seven shutout innings, allowing four hits and a walk. One of the hits went for extra-bases, a double. He struck out eight.
He set the Braves down in order in the first, getting Martin Prado on a ground ball to second, striking Nate McLouth out swinging and Chipper Jones on a ground ball to third.
Brian McCann struck out swinging 1-2 to start the second. Dan Uggla was next and hit the ball hard, but Polanco took it at third and threw to first for the second out. Jason Heyward flew to left to end the inning.
Hamels got Alex Gonzalez on a popup that Howard took in foul territory for the first out of the third. He struck out Freddie Freeman and the pitcher Derek Lowe behind Gonzalez.
Perfect through three innings, Hamels had thrown 37 pitches and struck out four.
He started the fourth up 1-0 and struck Prado out for the first out. Ibanez was playing unusually shallow and McLouth hit the ball over his head for a double. Chipper flew to right, deep enough for McLouth to tag and move to third. McCann hit the ball hard back up the middle, but Hamels fielded and threw to first to end the inning with McLouth stranded.
Not sure that’s where Ibanez should be playing McLouth. That’s a routine fly ball for a left fielder playing at his normal depth.
Uggla, Howard and Gonzalez went down in order in the fifth on a popup to second, a ground out to short and a strikeout.
Hamels was up 2-0 when Freeman started the sixth with a single into center. Lowe bunted him to second with the first out. Hamels struck Prado out swinging 1-2 for the second. It brought McLouth to the plate with Ibanez playing a little normaler, but Hamels walked him on a 3-1 pitch to put men on first and second for Chipper. Chipper was swinging first pitch and hit a ball hard, but Polanco handled it at third and made the long throw to retire him and end the inning.
Hamels had thrown 80 pitches through six.
He got McCann on a fly ball to center and Uggla swinging to start the seventh. Heyward and Gonzalez followed that with back-to-back singles, with Gonzalez’s single moving Heyward to third. Freeman grounded to Martinez to turn the Braves away.
Madson pitched the ninth. He allowed a one-out single to Prado, but got McLouth to hit into a double-play behind him.
The single to Prado is the only his Madson has allowed in three appearances so far this season. He has struck out four and hasn’t walked a batter.
Contreras threw a 1-2-3 ninth with the Phils up 3-0. He got Chipper and McCann on ground balls to second and then struck Uggla out to end the game.
Two saves in two tries for Contreras. He hasn’t allowed a run in three innings over three appearances for the year.
Contreras threw 15 pitches in the game. Madson 12. Everyone should be available Tuesday when the Phils face the Nats.
Fantastic series for the bullpen. They allowed four hits and two walks over 9 2/3 scoreless innings.
The Phillies lineup against righty Derek Lowe went (1) Victorino (2) Polanco (3) Rollins (4) Howard (5) Francisco (6) Ibanez (7) Ruiz (8) Martinez. Martinez starts at second with Valdez on the bench. Francisco continues to hit fifth against righties in the series with Ibanez dropped to sixth against an Atlanta team that has a lot of lefties to call on in their pen.
Victorino led off the game and lined a single into left, but Polanco hit into a double-play behind him. Rollins grounded to short for the third out.
Lowe got Howard, Francisco and Ibanez on three fly balls in the second.
Ruiz struck out looking to start the third. Martinez grounded to second and Hamels grounded back to the mound.
Lowe had faced the minimum through three innings and thrown 34 pitches.
Victorino started the fourth and slapped a single into left. Polanco was next and he singled into left-center, putting men on first and third for Rollins. Rollins chopped a ball to short. Victorino scored to put the Phils up 1-0, but Atlanta turned to and cleared the bases with Howard due to hit. Howard flew to center for the third out.
Softly hit singles to Victorino and Polanco to start the second. Nice job by Victorino to go first to third on the single by Polanco and it lets him score when Rollins hits into a double-play.
Francisco popped to second for the first out of the fifth, but Ibanez and Ruiz followed him with back-to-back singles that put men on first and second for Martinez. Martinez lined a ball right to Gonzalez at short. Gonzalez caught it and threw to first. Ruiz would have been doubled-off easily, but Gonzalez’s throw hit Ruiz and Hamels got to hit with two men on base. He dribbled a ball out in front of the plate that Lowe took and threw to first to end the frame.
Gonzalez’s throw hitting Ruiz keeps Hamels from leading off the sixth.
Victorino led off the sixth and hit a 2-2 pitch out to right, putting the Phils up 2-0. Polanco, Rollins and Howard went down behind him.
Victorino’s a little hot. The homer was seven hits in his last eight at-bats.
Ruiz singled with two outs in the seventh, but Martinez struck out behind him.
The Phils went in order in the eighth. Hamels was due to lead off. With lefty Jonny Venters on the mound for the Braves, Mayberry hit for him and grounded to short.
At least Mayberry got to hit against a lefty that time.
Rollins started the ninth with a double to right and took third on an error by Heyward when he bobbled the ball. Howard was next and hit a ball hard, but Gonzalez handled it at short and threw to first to get Howard as Rollins scored to put the Phils up 3-0. Francisco walked, but Ibanez struck out behind him and he was picked off of first and thrown out at second with Ruiz at the plate.
Victorino was 3-for-4 in the game with a home run. 9-for-13 in the series with a double and a home run. 417/432/611 on the year.
Polanco was 1-for-4 in the game and 2-for-13 in the series. 342/390/447 on the year.
Rollins 1-for-4 with a double in the game. 3-for-13 with three doubles in the series. He came into the set without an extra-base hit in the first six games. 324/390/405.
Howard 0-for-4 with an RBI yesterday. 1-for-11 in the series with a walk and a double. 361/390/639.
Francisco 0-for-3 with a walk. 3-for-13 with a walk and a double in the series. He also stole a base and struck out just once. 306/375/528 for the season.
Ibanez 1-for-4. 2-for-12 with a double, a walk and five strikeouts in the series. 257/350/400 on the year.
Ruiz 2-for-3 with two singles yesterday. 6-for-9 with a double, a home run and five RBI in the series. 346/414/538.
Martinez was 0-for-3. He’s 2-for-8 with a walk on the year. Valdez was 0-for-6 with a walk in the set and is hitting 333/357/444 on the season.
No game today. Blanton (0-0, 14.54) faces righty Livan Hernandez (0-1, 4.76) Tuesday. Blanton looked okay early in his first start before the Mets hammered him in the fifth. Hernandez has made two starts for Washington. In his most recent outing he faced the Fish and walked five in five innings.


April 11th, 2011 on 1:15 pm
“Blanton looked okay early in his .. start before (he got) hammered.. ”
Isn’t that every Blanton start ever?
April 11th, 2011 on 1:26 pm
Sometimes they don’t hammer him in the fifth. He keeps you guessing. I actually think Blanton will be better this year. Hopefully starting tomorrow.
April 11th, 2011 on 1:32 pm
Encouraging to see the top 7 guys in the batting order (top 8 if you include Valdez) with OBP’s on the good side of .350. You’ll tend to score a lot of runs when that is the case.
Maybe they need to only let Mayberry hit against right handed pitchers?
April 11th, 2011 on 2:06 pm
Yep. I think that helps a lot. Phils still on pace to score more than 1,000 runs for the season (1,062). The bullpen is on pace to throw more than 550 innings, which would be a problem. The Nats led all MLB teams in innings pitched last year with 545. Still, it’s hard not to feel like it’s a good start.
I’m kind of interested in seeing Mayberry against anybody. I don’t think he’s going to walk much, but he seems exciting at the plate. Starting to get a little bit worried about Francisco. He’s hitting 217/308/391 over the last six games (since going 6-for-13 against the Astros in the opening series). Of course, those numbers would have looked a lot better if any of those homers against the Mets had actually left the yard.
April 11th, 2011 on 3:07 pm
Agreed. Blanton and Ben being good would make this year a very pleasant one. And Mayberry… is he ready to “arrive”? Jeepers, that would be fun, would it not.
April 11th, 2011 on 3:10 pm
BTW, it is only right that I give props due to Hamels. Sensational game. What makes me really happy is seeing him hitch up his trousers at the end there when things were getting a little, um, exciting, and he was getting a little tired. He really pulled it together and got that final out in the 7th. I take that as a truly good sign of getting tough as well as being good.
April 11th, 2011 on 7:31 pm
I hope I’m wrong, but I’m not sure Mayberry is ever going to arrive in the sense of being a solid everyday player. It would be pretty fun if he did, though.
I agree that Hamels was great. Don’t give up on him yet.
April 12th, 2011 on 2:47 pm
OT: Fascinating pitching stats article by Verducci on SI.com – http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/tom_verducci/04/12/fastballs.trackman/index.html?xid=cnnbin&hpt=Sbin
Notable here because it lists Chad Durbin as having the 3rd-most-effective curveball in the game.
April 12th, 2011 on 3:50 pm
Jim, very cool article. Who knew?
April 12th, 2011 on 7:02 pm
Great article, thanks. Hopefully they can teach everyone Robertson’s six foot stride thing.
April 12th, 2011 on 8:56 pm
So, tell me. Is it a rule somewhere that I missed that the Phillies are not allowed to hit someone who cannot break 85 MPH with his fastball?
April 12th, 2011 on 10:01 pm
Evidently. Little known rule, but an important one. Halladay tomorrow. That always sounds good.
April 12th, 2011 on 10:48 pm
I’m guessing someone might be having a chat with Joe sometime soon.
April 13th, 2011 on 9:33 am
He looks pretty bad. He was getting hit pretty hard in the fourth inning last night, and that’s early. Glad to see him come back a little after that — he allowed a home run to Werth, but retired the other five guys he faced in the fifth and sixth. I was expecting him to start the year stronger than this. I think the Phils were too.