The Phillies jumped out early once agan by scoring in their first at bat. They were helped immensely by the achilles heal of the Marlins, defense! Mike Jacobs butchered a ground ball hit by Ryan Howard that allowed Chase Utley to score the first run. Utley had reached on a walk and advanced on Jayson Werth’s single. Werth scored the second run of the game on a wild pitch by Florida starter Josh Johnson, Werth had went to third on the error by Jacobs.
Florida bounced right back in the bottom of the first to score five runs as the first five batters all got hits including a two run home run by Dan Uggla. Greg Dobbs homered to lead off the second inning marking the first dinger that Florida starter Josh Johnson has given to a lefty hitter all season. Chris Coste then singled and advanced to second on a sac bunt by Brett Myers. Florida made yet another fielding mistake as Jimmy Rollins singled to right field and Cody Ross overthrew the cutoff man allowing Rollins to advance to second base. Coste then scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Chase Utley. After only one and one half innings of play nine runs had scored as the Marlins led 5 to 4 !
The Big Man Ryan Howard put the Phillies back on top in the fifth inning as he belted a two run home run to right field to score Chase Utley in front of him. Howard battled in a classic at bat by working the count to 3-2 and fouling off numerous pitches before belting the blast! Brett Myers struggled again in the home fifth as Florida bounced back to regain the lead. Myers could not record an out in the inning and left with the bases loaded after allowing two runs to score. Rudy Seanez came in as first relief and got tagged for a three run home run by Alfredo Amezaga after getting two outs. Score at the end of five was 11-6 Marlins. Florida added two more in the sixth off of Les Walrond to add insult to injury. The Phillies offense though does not understand the word quit and scored two off Florida reliever Andrew Miller in the seventh and eighth innings including a solo home run by Shane Victorino. That forced the Marlins to lift Miller in favor of another reliever Logan Kensing who got two outs in the eighth but allowed two runners and was then pulled in favor of ex Phil Arthur Rhodes who came on to get out of the inning with no further damage. Kyle Kendrick got an inning of work in the eighth and got lit up by Jorge Cantu for a long solo home run.
Final Score : Florida 14 Phillies 8 Have to come back and get ‘em tommorrow boys! The only saving grace was that Milwaukee also got smoked by Cincy and at the time I filed this summary the Mets bullpen was trying their damdest to blow another one in Atlanta !
Chatter
The stands were pretty empty in Florida for the game, never quite understood how the Marlins maintain a presence in the Miami area as they usually put a decent product on the field but have historically never really drawn. Similiar situation in Tampa Bay where the Rays are argueably the most talented young team in baseball but very rarely sell out the park. With the lack of support the Marlins management is forced to sell off players that reach arbitration simply because they cannott afford to keep them.
I don’t know if folks notice but Brett Myers starts every game now by standing behind the mound looking at Jimmy Rollins and mimicking the celebration hand signal that Jose Reyes does when he scores for the Mets. Myers follows the signal with a smirk and another signal of throwing his hand up in the air as if to say “Yeh Right!” ……….. that is at least what I think it is anyway. It didn’t bring us any luck tonight though.
