Friday Braves 6 Phillies 3
The Phils jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to Victorino and Polanco who both had singles to lead off the game. Rollins then hit a groundball that advanced Victorino but got Polanco out at 2nd. With Howard up, Rollins stole 2nd to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with just 1 out for the Big Dog. Howard then hit a sacrifice fly to score Victorino, and Ben Francisco had a line drive single to score Rollins. The Phils then added another run in the 2nd to give Cliff Lee a 3-0 lead. Unfortunately, Lee did not have his best night and pitched just 3.1 innings and gave up 6 runs on 10 hits in a very disappointing outing. Lee didn't have great command, and the Braves took advantage. After a solid first inning in which Cliff gave up just 1 hit, Lee followed with a 3 run second, giving up a lot of hits. Jayson Heyward led off the inning with a triple, and Alex Gonzalez scored Heyward with an RBI double. Martin Prado then had a ground rule double to score Gonzalez, and Nate Mclouth hit home Freddie Freeman on a groundout. It only got worse for Lee who gave up a bases clearing double to Chipper Jones in the 4th that gave the Braves a 6-3 lead, and earned an early exit for the Phils ace. Kendrick, Bastardo and Romero did a good job in relief not allowing any runs but the Phils offense went scoreless in the final innings and the Braves won by a final of 6-3.
Saturday Phillies 10 Braves 2
After Cliff Lee's disappointing outing, Roy Oswalt looked to get the Phils back on track. Oswalt did just that by pitching a solid 6 inning game, giving up just 1 earned run on 5 hits and 2 walks. Offensively the Phils had another 1st inning run but did most of their damage in the 4th off of Brian Schneider's 2 run homerun, and in the 7th off Carlos Ruiz's first career grand slam. Also in the 7th, Ryan Howard had an rbi double to score Shane Victorino and give the Phillies an 8-2 lead. After adding 2 more runs in the 8th, J.C. Romero and Danys Baez closed out the 10-2 victory for the Phils. For the second series in a row, the Phils had managed to force a rubber match.
Sunday Phillies 3 Braves 0
In the rubber match of the series, the Phillies sent Cole Hamels to the mound to face Derek Lowe. Both pitchers looked great early on, but the Phils were able to work a run off of Lowe in the 4th when Victorino made a great base running play. After Victorino hit his second single of the day, Polanco hit a single in the gap between Nate Mclouth and Martin Prado. Both outfielders hesitated in getting to the ball, and in the confusion Victorino advanced to third. Rollins then hit into a double play that scored Victorino and gave the Phils a 1-0 lead. The second run for the Phils came in the top of the 6th when Shane Victorino hit a solo homerun. After falling behind in the count 0-2, Shaner fought off an inside pitch and hit a solo home run to right field to give the Phils a 2-0 lead. Hamels continued to pitch a strong game locating his fastball and getting guys to swing and miss at his changeup. Hamels worked his way out of some difficult jams, and in the end pitched 7 scoreless innings with 8 strike outs.
There were 3 keys to Hamels success in today's game. First off, he put his last start out of his head. It's important as a starting pitcher to have a short memory because regardless of how good you are, there are still going to be games in which you get shelled. Hamels put his start against the Mets out of his head and pitched a great game. The second key for Hamels was for most of the game he was able to pitch from the wind up. Hamels did not allow too many base runners, and in turn was able to pitch from the wind up where I think he is most comfortable. Finally, Hamels was successful today because he didn't try to do too much. He put the ball in play and let his team mates help him out defensively.
In the bottom of the 8th, Madson came in and struck out the first batter. After giving up a single Madson, then forced a double play ground ball to end the inning. In the top of the 9th the Phils added an insurance run, and Jose Contreras came into the bottom of the 9th with a 3-0 lead. Contreras got the first 2 guys to ground out, and then struck out Dan Uggla to get the save and seal the 3-0 victory for the Phils.
It was a great series victory for the Phils who responded nicely in the final 2 games of the series behind 2 strong outings from Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels. The Phillies are now 7-2 and will travel to Washington D.C. on Tuesday to take on Jayson Werth and the Nationals.
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