So far for the Phils, the month of August has been a very good month. The Phils are 10-3 in August, and they have won 6 of their last 7 series. Even with injuries to Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Shane Victorino, the Phils in their absence, have managed to play some of their best baseball all year. After a tough series loss in Washington, the Phils have won every series since and with the return of Chase Utley and Ryan Howard scheduled for sometime this week, the Phils look more dangerous than ever. The Phils have played awesome in the last 2 weeks, let me recap each series for you.
The Phils opened up their series in Washington by sending new pitcher Roy Oswalt to the mound. Oswalt clearly had some jitters as he went only 6 innings and gave up 4. Not a bad start, but not one that I and others were expecting. The Phils offered very little run support and lost by a final of 8-1. Joe Blanton got the start on Saturday and he too pitched 6 and gave up 4 runs. Although the Phils countered with some offense from Raul Ibanez and Carlos Ruiz it was not enough as they lost by a final of 7-5. In the fianl game of the series, Cole Hamels started and pitched 7 giving up 4 runs. The bullpen was able to hold on long enough as the Phils edged out an extra innings win thanks to an rbi single from Placido Polanco and an rbi double from Jayson Werth in the top of the 11th. Although the Phils did not win the series they were at least able to salvage a victory in the final game. The negative that came from Sunday was Ryan Howard got hurt and would later be placed on the DL.
After a dissapointing series in Washington, the Phils traveld to Florida to take on the Marlins. The Phils started out the series by sending ace Roy Halladay to the mound. Halladay pitched a gem, going 7 and giving up just 1 run. The Phils got a lot of help on offense from Carlos Ruiz who had a 4 hit night, and Roy Halladay who knocked in a pair of runs. The Phils won the game by a final of 6-1. On Wednesday, the Phils sent Kendrick to the mound. Kendrick had a very strong outing, pitching 6 and giving up only 1 run. The Phils generated a lot of their runs from the top of their order. Jimmy Rollins, Placido Polanco and Raul Ibanez combined for 6 hits and 2 rbis. Domonic Brown also helped out by knocking in 3 runs. The Phils won by a final of 7-2. On Thursday the Phils completed the sweep. Roy Oswalt pitched 6.1 innings and gave up 2. Although the bullpen gave up another 2 runs, the Phils offense managed to produce and the Phils won by a final of 5-4.
After the sweep in Florida, the Phils returned home for a series against the Mets. In the opening game of the series, Joe Blanton pitched a solid game, pitching 7 and giving up 2 runs. Unfortunatley for Joe, the Phils offense was quiet all night and trailed 2-1 going into the bottom of the 8th. In the 8th, the Phillies scored a flurry of runs. The Phils started off the 8th with 5 consecutive singles. In the end, the Phils finished the wild inning by scoring 6 runs and they took a 7-2 lead into the top of the 9th. After J.C. Romero gave up a 3 run home run, Brad Lidge came in and secured the 7-5 victory over the Mets. Cole Hamels got the start in the second game of the series but even after pitching 7 and giving up just 1 run, he suffered the loss. The Phils could not score a run off of Santana and Jeff Francour's solo shot off of Hamels turned out to be the ball game. In the rubber match of the series, the Phils sent Roy Halladay to the mound. Although Halladay did not have his best outing, it was in the end enough because the Phils roughed up the Mets starter R.A. Dickey. Raul Ibanez had a 3 run homer and helped the Phils win by a final of 6-5.
The Dodgers came to town next and after a football score loss of 15-9 in the opening game of the series, the Phils went on to win the next 2 and the series. The Phils were able to win the 2nd game of the series behind a gem from Roy Oswalt. Oswalt continued his successful ways at CBP by pitching 7 and giving up 0 runs. The Phils won by a final of 2-0. In the rubber match of the series, Joe Blanton got roughed up and the Phils offense struggled all night. The Phils trailed 9-2 going into the bottom of the 8th. I will try to recap the next 2 innings as best as possible. Placido Polanco and Mike Sweeney started out the inning by singling. After a wild pitch when Jayson Werth was up they both moved up a base so it was runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Jayson Werth then hit a single and the Phils cut the lead to 9-4. After Belisario balked, Werth moved to 2nd and Francisco hit a double to score Werth. After Ruiz grounded out, Wilson Valdez hit a single and knocked in Ben Francisco. Even after a 4 run 8th the Phils still trailed 9-6 going into the bottom of the 9th. Luckily for the Phils, Joe Torre decided to put in Johnathon Broxton in to save the game, bad decison. After hitting Polanco, walking Sweeney and walking Werth, Ben Francisco reached on an error Polanco and Sweeney scored, and with Werth and Francisco on 2nd and 3rd with no outs Chooooch stepped to the plate. With a 1-1 count, Ruiz hit a double to score Werth and Francisco and the Phils completed the comeback. They erased a 7 run defecit in just 2 innings.
The Phils then traveled to New York where they got shutout again in the first game but managed to win the final 2 games of the series. Although Hamels pitched a gem in the opening game he suffered the 1-0 loss because R.A. Dickey pitched a 9 inning complete game 1 hit shutout. In the second game the Phils got a gem from Halladay and finally scored some runs at Citi Field. And last night the Phils won behind a solid outing from Kyle Kendrick and good base running. They won by a final of 3-1.
It has been a wild month of August for the Phils. They have battled through injuries and they have fought their way to a tie in the wild card and just 2 games behind the Braves. The Giants come to town next, and with the return of Ryan Howard and Chase Utley slotted for sometime this week, the Phils are going to provide us with a lot more exciting baseball as we head into September.
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