Offense Slowly Waking Up

It wasn't pretty and it certainly wasn't flashy, but the Phils were able to gut out a 3-2 victory tonight over the Texas Rangers.

Roy Halladay got into a jam in the first, but worked his way out of the inning giving up just 1 run. After the first Halladay seemed to settle down and get into a groove. He got ahead of hitters and was almost impossible to hit.

The offense finally came alive in the 2nd when Ben Francisco smacked a 2 run HR to left center to give the Phils a 2-1 lead. In the 4th the Phils added to that lead when Raul Ibanez belted a HR to straight center field to make it a 3-1 game and give Halladay a comfortable 2 run lead.

Halladay continued to deal and did a great job of pinning the Rangers into 0-2 counts where he was then able to dictate the at-bat. In the end Halladay pitched 8 strong innings and only surrendered 2 runs. Madson came into the game in the 9th and dealt his mid 90's fast ball to get the save and secure a 3-2 Phillies victory.

Although the offense only scored 3 runs off of 4 hits and didn't exactly break out, it was good to see the Phils hit some home runs and provide a decent amount of run support for Halladay. With little run support in his last few outings, I think we quickly forgot just how dominant and overpowering Halladay can be. Tonight Roy had 7 strike outs and walked just 1 batter and aside from the 1st and 8th inning was absolutely lights out.

Cliff Lee will get the start tomorrow night as the Phils look to win the series. Domonic Brown should see some action as the Phils will be facing the right-hander Colby Lewis.