Third game of the series in Chicago was a day game carried as a regional telecast by Fox Sports. Brett Myers took the hill for the Fightins against Ted Lilly of the Cubs. Chicago jumped out to the initial lead as cub catcher Geovany Soto scored Mark Derosa with a single in the second inning. Lilly wiggled out of first inning trouble then proceeded to retire twelve straight hitters till Jayson Werth led off the Phillies fifth inning with his 19th home run to tie the game at one.
The Phillies loaded the bases in the sixth on singles by Chase Utley and Ryan Howard and a hit by pitch by Shane Victorino. Jayson Werth then came thru with a huge two out hit as he singled to right field to score both Utley and Howard! Howard made a beautiful slide at home to avoid the tag on a very close play! Myers threw shutdown innings in both the sixth and seventh and Ryan Howard gave him an additional run as he smoked a solo home run to center field in the Phillies eighth. Jayson Werth had an even bigger day in the eighth as he blasted his 20th home run to left field to put the Phils up 5 to 1! Werth’s homer gave him four RBI’s in the game.
The Cubbies do not quit though and jumped on Myers in the home eighth with three consecutive singles scoring one and knocking Brett out of the game. J.C. Romero came on to strike out the side and shut down the threat! Huge effort by the lefty! Did not like the chest thumping he did afterwards but the latin players do show their emotions! I have criticized “hot dogging” many many times in regards to Met players like Tatis and Reyes so can’t be blind to our guys doing it.
Brad Lidge pitched a perfect ninth inning including two strikeouts to close the game. Lidge earned save number 32 in 32 tries! The Phillies improved to 61 and 0 when leading after eight innings.
Chatter
Matt Stairs officially joined the Phillies and will wear number 12. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Todd Zolecki reported that Kyle Farnsworth of the Tigers may be a target for the Fightins to acquire as bullpen help for the eighth inning. Farnsworth has peformed the setup and closer role in his career and would indeed be a great pickup for the team’s bullpen. My youngest son made a very profound statement regarding management’s approach, does the team want to linger around a playoff spot season after season and hope to get in, if so they should not trade away prospects, go after select free agents in the winter and hope the pre built roster catches fire, …….. or do they want to really make a run for it like the Marlins do periodically by building a formidable roster for a season, adding to it accordingly by trade during the season and then dismantling it in a rebuild afterwards via trades for other teams prospects before the rostered players get too old. Florida has a formulated and budgeted plan to to regroup for targeted runs and albeit there is a lack of consistency in that regards there is indeed a higher reward. The FIsh approach has been more successful winning two world series within the past ten years, we have one some 28 years ago! I prefer that the Fightins pull the trigger now on deals and go for it! We consistently watch our pro football team take that “linger at the top” approach and yes they win plenty of games but we have no titles!
Talk shows and fans jumped all over Skipper Charlie Manuel for pulling Cole Hamels after seven innings on Thursday night. As it turns out Hamels had told pitching coach Rich Dubee he was gassed and could not go in the eighth! So much for the geniuses that criticize before getting the entire story! Brett Myers would never volunteer to come out of a game and that is much more admirable to me than what Hamels did even though in this one Myers was obviously gassed !
In a somewhat surprising move the Philles released Kris Benson from Triple A Lehigh Valley today, Benson was signed in the offseason and was coming back from major injury. He had been making slow progress but had advanced to Triple A. Not sure why the sudden release.
