Friday, April 9th
J.A. Happ was the benefactor of yet another tremendous offensive effort as the young lefty tossed five scoreless innings enroute to an 8-0 win over the Houston Astros. The Phillies offense pounded out 16 hits marking the fourth consecutive game the team had more than 10 hits in a game, the last time that happened for the franchise to start a season was 1926 when the Cy Williams led Phillies were offensive mashers but not much else, that team struggled with pitching and defense, the 2010 Fightins don’t seem to have any problems in the early going!
Raul Ibanez broke out of his early season slump by smacking three hits knocking in three runs. Placido Polanco had a four hit game while Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Jayson Werth all had two hits. Utley hit his first homer of the season. David Herndon, Dannys Baez and Jose Contreras closed out the game on the hill.
Saturday, April 10th
Jamie Moyer made his 656th big league appearance on the hill as he took his first start of the season for the Fightins. Moyer was his typical self as he danced pitches around the Astros and earned his first win as the Fightins kept Houston winless with a 9 to 6 win.
The team reached double digits in base hits once again and have started 4-1, first time since 1993 when those throwback phillies of Darren Daulton and John Kruk went to the world series. Ryan Howard and Shane Victorino both belted two run homers in the game, Placido Polanco once again had a multi hit game. The team scored eight of thier runs with two outs, they have plated 19 runs with two outs thus far this season! That in itself is a great indication on how locked in they are right now.
The noticable difference with this year’s offense is the fact that they are taking alot of pitches, Jimmy Rollins has already walked eight times this season! The patient approach has made the opposing starters get into high pitch counts early on in the contests and also has put the fightins in great hitters counts.
Chad Durbin, Dannys Baez and Ryan Madson closed the contest for the Phillies, Durbin and Baez looked very impressive in their 1-2-3 innings of work.
Roy Halladay on tap tommorrow against Roy Oswalt in the series finale.
