Game Recap:
Chad Durbin made things interesting in the ninth, but the Phillies managed to hold on for a 5-3 win, which preserved Joe Blanton's most impressive win of the season.
What went right?
Joe Blanton was awesome, throwing seven shutout innings while striking out a career high 11 and walking two.
Shane Victorino went 4-5 with an RBI and a run scored.
Jimmy Rollins scored twice.
Raul Ibanez went 1-2 with a walk and a sacrifice fly for his 44th RBI of the season.
Pedro Feliz went 2-4 with two RBI.
Jayson Werth went 1-4 with a run scored and an RBI.
What went wrong?
Ryan Howard went 0-3, and had his first error of the season in the ninth inning, which made the game much more interesting than it had to be.
Chad Durbin didn't make things easy in the ninth inning, walking two batters and allowing three runs (one earned), before Brad Lidge came in to finish the game.
Game Analysis:
Well hello, Mr. Joe Blanton. In the almost one full season that Blanton has been a member of the Phillies, I've never seen him pitch as well as he did tonight. After his last start showed signs of promise before the fifth inning from hell, Blanton came out tonight with his best stuff, and man, was it impressive. He had the Marlins guessing all night long and recorded a career high 11 strikeouts. I don't have much else to say other than, well done Joe. If you can keep that up, all of a sudden, the Phillies' rotation doesn't look too bad at all.
Of course, the bullpen decided to go a little bit south tonight, with Chad Durbin getting hit up for three runs in the top of the ninth inning. Now, only one was earned, thanks to Ryan Howard's first error of the season, but the fact of the matter is that he let three men cross the plate. Error or not, that doesn't work for me. Plus, it forced Charlie to bring Brad Lidge into a game that the Phils shouldn't have had to use him. Fortunately, he got the save with relative ease, and looked more confident out there tonight than he did against the Yankees, so maybe this is what he needs, who knows?
It was good to see the offense come out swinging tonight and pick up three runs in the first inning, too. Pedro Feliz kept on doing what he's done all year so far, and drove in two more runs, while Raul Ibanez showed why he deserves the sixth (sixth?!) most votes for outfield on the All Star team with yet another RBI. I don't know how long he can keep this up, and I'm sure that he'll start to slow down eventually, but it's always nice to have a guy on your team with as many RBI as games played. Not only does it mean he's constantly producing, but it looks nice on the projected stats page on ESPN.com as well. Shane Victorino looked like he shook off his little baserunning blunder in the ninth inning last night with a four hit game from the two hole tonight. I know Charlie usually has hunches when he moves the lineup around, and tonight it worked out, though it'll be interesting to see how long he keeps Shane there with the three straight lefties in the middle of that lineup.
Aside from the ninth inning shakes that I got, it was a good win tonight, and hopefully, it can keep up. Tomorrow, Brett Myers (4-2, 4.34 ERA) looks to keep his momentum going against Burke Badenhop (2-2, 5.75 ERA). If the starting pitching keeps going like this, the Phils will have nothing to worry about, so keep your fingers crossed that it does!
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