Game Recap:
The Phillies completed their three game sweep over Milwaukee thanks to a solid pitching effort from Cole Hamels and RBI from Placido Polanco, Wilson Valdez and Hamels.
What went right?
Shane Victorino went 2-4 with two runs scored.
Placido Polanco was 2-5 with an RBI.
Jayson Werth was 1-5 with a run scored.
Ryan Howard was 2-4.
Wilson Valdez went 1-5 with an RBI.
Paul Hoover was 1-2 with two intentional walks and a run scored.
Cole Hamels didn't have his best stuff, but still picked up his fourth win of the season. He allowed two runs on six hits in 6.2 innings of work. He walked three batters and struck out three, and also went 1-3 at the plate with an RBI double.
J.C. Romero had a few issues with full counts in the ninth, but worked a perfect inning to record his first save of the year.
What went wrong?
The Phillies worked 11 hits and five walks, but only scored four runs. They also left 12 men on base.
Five of the six hits that Cole Hamels allowed came with two strikes on the batter.
Game Analysis:
The Phils came into their weekend series with one of the best offenses in all of baseball, and they proved that to be true in the first two games, putting up 19 runs against the Milwaukee pitching staff. On Sunday night, the Phils didn't get the same output from their offense, but Cole Hamels and the bullpen did enough as the Phillies completed a three game sweep against the Brewers to put themselves ten games over .500 for the first time this season.
The game started out well enough for the Phils, who scored a run in each of the first three innings. The offense looked like it wasn't going to miss a beat, and even Cole Hamels got things going with an RBI double in the third inning. Despite issues in the first inning, Hamels looked solid after that, getting the Brewers out with his pitches and doing well to make sure that he kept the Phillies in the lead while he was on the mound. He did give up back to back home runs in the sixth inning, but honestly, if those are the only runs that he's going to give up during a game, I can live with that. I don't know if he's ever going to look like the 2008 version of Cole Hamels again, but the guy that's out there pitching at the moment has won four games and has an ERA that's inching closer to 4.00 than anything else, so that I can take. All that the Phillies need is a solid pitcher behind Roy Halladay. If Cole Hamels can be that pitcher, then the Phils are just fine in that department.
The one area that the Phillies might not be ok right now is their bullpen. Tonight, they managed to get by with Danys Baez and J.C. Romero, but things were interesting. Baez threw good pitches, but still ended up with two on and no out before Casey McGehee grounded into a double play, which was followed by a ground out from Corey Hart to end the inning. Romero retired the first two batters he faced, but went to 3-0 on Craig Counsell before getting him to fly out to Shane Victorino to end the game. It wasn't pretty, but it worked at least for tonight. The good news is that the Brewers have one of the best offenses in the National League, so the Phillies aren't going to face off against that every night. The bad news is that the Phillies have Danys Baez and Jose Contreras closing games out right now. Yes, they are still good pitchers, but they shouldn't have to be in this situation. The front office is killing me with how they're handling the bullpen. It's a weakness now, like it was last year, and yet nothing major happened. It needs to be fixed.
Either way, the Phillies went into Milwaukee and swept a series that they should have. Tomorrow, they head home to take on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Kyle Kendrick (1-1, 5.89 ERA) will face off against Charlie Morton (1-6, 9.19 ERA). God help you if you lose this game, Kendrick...
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