The offensive woes continued for the Fightins as they made journeyman Pittsburgh starting righthander look like the second coming of Cy Young himself during his stint in the contest!  Davis shut the mighty Phillie offense down on four hits thru six frames limiting them to just two unearned runs.

Jamie Moyer gave his usual professional pitcher performance for the Phils as he went six innings and left trailing by one run, he was touched for three runs on seven hits.  Pittsburgh scored first in the second inning as Doug Mientkiewicz doubled home Brandon Moss.  They scored two more in the sixth as former Phillie Jason Michaels doubled in Nate McClouth and Ryan Doumit who had both singled.

The Phillie initial runs were scored in the third due to inept Pirate defense.  Carlos Ruiz reached on a walk and scored as Moyer laid down a sacrifice bunt but Davis and Doumit collided fielding the ball and Davis threw the ball away down the right field line.  Moyer advanced all the way to third as right fielder Michaels who fielded the first errant throw made one himself trying to get Moyer at second and sailed it to short left field!  Jimmy Rollins then plated Moyer with a sacrifice fly to center field.

Lefty Scott Eyre made his Phillie debut in the seventh in relief of Clay Condrey who got the first two outs but was then tagged for two singles.  Eyre coaxed a pop out from McClouth to get out of the inning without any runs scoring.   Tyler Yates came on to pitch for the Buccos in the home seventh and Carlos Ruiz smoked his first pitch to left center for a double.  Pinch hitter extraordinaire Greg Dobbs then inside outed a ball and doubled down the left field line to score Ruiz and tie the game.  It was Dobbs 21st pinch hit of the season, he leads all of baseball in that category!  It also set a new Phillies single season record for pinch hits.  Yates then uncorked a wild pitch with Jimmy Rollins at bat  allowing Dobbs to go to third but J-Roll and Shane Victorino came up small with a drawn-in infield and could not score the go-ahead run, Rollins grounded to first and Victorino flied out to short left.  Chase Utley bailed them both out with a two run bomb over the right field wall to put the Fightins up two!  It was Utley’s first hit of the entire series.  The hit was huge as it looked as if another opportunity was about to be wasted. 

J.C. Romero pitched a perfect eighth aided by a fine fielding play by J-Roll on the third out.  Jayson Werth reached on a walk in the bottom of the eighth, advanced to second on a ground out, to third on a wild pitch and scored on a passed ball!  Thank you Pittsburgh!  Ryan Madson finished the game to earn his first save as he also had a perfect inning.  Eyre was the pitcher of record and got credited with a win in his first Phillie appearance.

The Marlins beat the Mets so with the win the Phillies division lead extended to two games over the New Yorkers.  I have a feeling that cushion will be needed as our Fightins head out on a key road trip.

 Chatter

As noted the Phillies head into a crucial part of their schedule as they head to the west coast to take on the Dodgers and Padres for the next seven games.   They begin a four game set with the Dodgers on Monday evening.  Brad Lidge was not available for action for the second consecutive night as he is being rested with right shoulder stiffness.   I almost get the feeling that the Fightins would prefer to be on the road, they seem tighter in front of the home crowd, just an observation but we will see how these next seven go and if the offense hits a hot spell again!  Let;s hope Manny isn’t Manny or the Phillies pitch around him!

The game was delayed close to two hours as severe thunderstorms passed thru the Delaware Valley. In some areas, such as where I live, pellets of hail fell from the sky!  Citizens Bank Park has tremendous drainage as well as a great grounds crew and that combination enabled the game to be played!