Game Recap:
The benches cleared in San Francisco last night, and when all was said and done, Hunter Pence, John Mayberry and Shane Victorino hit home runs, and Vance Worley won his eighth game of the season as the Phillies won their season high eighth in a row.
What went right?
Jimmy Rollins was 1-4 with two RBI and two stolen bases.
Placido Polanco was 2-4 with an RBI and one takedown defended.
Shane Victorino went 2-3, hit a home run and was ejected in the sixth inning for his part in the fight.
Hunter Pence was 2-5 and hit a home run for the second straight game.
John Mayberry went 2-5 with a two run home run and two runs scored.
Brian Schneider was 1-3, scored a run and drove in one.
Vance Worley pitched seven innings, allowing two runs on seven hits. He walked one and struck out six.
What went wrong?
Aside from Victorino getting tossed from the game and likely suspended, nothing went wrong last night.
Game Analysis:
Well, where do I start with this one? I was all set to write about how the Phillies had dominated the Giants for a second straight night when Shane Victorino gets hit by a Ramon Ramirez pitch in the top of the sixth inning. Next thing you know, the benches clear, Eli Whiteside fails to tackle Placido Polanco and all hell has broken loose. At least the Phillies still won.
I'm only going to say a little bit about the fight, since so much has been made about it already. The blame for this has to lie with the Giants. Just because Ramirez was getting hit doesn't mean that he should throw at the last batter he's going to face in the game. Yes, the pitch to Shane was intentional, don't even try and say otherwise. It was a cheap shot, and Ramirez should be suspended for it. The Giants turned around and blamed the whole thing on Jimmy Rollins stealing second base with the Phillies up 8-2, saying that Rollins violated some "unwritten rule" of baseball. Don't even start with that. First of all, this was the sixth inning, not the top of the ninth. The Giants still had 12 outs to work with. Just because their offense sucks doesn't mean that they should start throwing at the Phillies.
Just yesterday, I was saying that this matchup was becoming a rivalry. Well, I was wrong. It's a rivalry now. These two teams just don't like each other any more. The Giants try to show you up each and every time one of those bearded freaks takes the field, while the Phillies just go about their business. There was a time when I actually respected the Giants, because they hadn't won a championship since the Willie Mays era. That time is well past now. The Giants are quickly moving up my list of teams I can't stand, and it's the same with a lot of Phillies fans this morning.
Honestly, this is a worse situation for the Giants than it is the Phillies. Victorino is likely going to miss some games because of the way he got back into the fight, but the Phils have the best record in baseball and are eight and a half games up on the Braves. The Giants are locked in the middle of a race for the NL West or the Wild Card. They can't afford to have anyone get suspended, especially their hopped-up little catcher that can't even tackle Polanco.
Anyway, that's enough about that. Other than the fight, it was another great showing by the Phillies, who have done nothing but win since Hunter Pence arrived in town. Pence hit the exclamation point home run last night to put the Phillies up 9-2, but it was Victorino and Mayberry's home runs in the fourth inning that put the Phils ahead to stay. Before the fourth, Jonathan Sanchez was pitching a gem, but, as has been the case for him throughout his career, he came undone in the fourth inning, allowing four runs to cross the plate. After Polanco drove in Jimmy Rollins in the fifth inning, Sanchez's night was over.
The Phillies were just getting started, as they scored three times in the previously mentioned sixth innning off of Ramon Ramirez. Every starting player, including Vance Worley, had a hit during the game and everyone helped produce last night. That's the kind of effort at the plate that you want to see from a team coming down the stretch. You don't want to always have to rely on home runs, though they are nice. You want to be able to produce runs with hits, bunts and stolen bases. That's what the best of the best do.
What else can be said about the way Vance Worley has pitched this year? He came into this season, unsure if he would even be on the team, and he's gone 8-1 with an ERA of 2.35 as a fifth starter. Some of his success is likely due to teams not seeing him yet, but the majority of it is because of the fact that Worley is just a good pitcher. You can't teach talent, and Worley has that. With Roy Oswalt coming back off the DL on Sunday, the Phillies are going to have the best starting rotation in baseball. Forget the Four Aces, they might have to make room for Worley.
Worley pitched well again last night, bouncing back from a rough start against the Pirates his last time out. Though he gave up a run in the first inning, he came back and shut down the Giants for the rest of the game, allowing only a solo home run by Eli Whiteside in the fifth. Michael Stutes and David Herndon did the mop up work in the eighth and ninth innings, and the meat of the Phils bullpen hasn't even seen the pitcher's mound in this series yet. That's a good thing.
Later on today, the Phillies and the Giants will be playing some afternoon baseball. Cole Hamels (12-6, 2.62 ERA) will try for his 13th win of the season as he takes on Matt Cain (9-7, 3.10 ERA).
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