The Phillies (36-32) won a very low scoring affair in tonight's series-opener against the Cleveland Indians by a score of 2-1. Philadelphia was led by the efforts by 47-year-old Jamie Moyer, who went eight strong innings and only gave up one run on two hits.
Moyer gave up a record-tying 505 home run tonight to Russell Branyan in the second inning, as Moyer is now tied for the lead with the most home-runs given up in MLB history along with Robin Roberts. But that was the only mistake that Moyer made on a night that belonged to him.
Following that home run, Moyer retired 15 Indians in a row and was able to elicit 14 ground ball outs on the night. He lowered his ERA to 4.43 on the season and got his eighth victory on the season which ties him for the team lead with ace Roy Halladay.
In his last four starts, if you take away his Boston implosion, Moyer hasn't allowed more than two earned runs in any of those starts while throwing 31 innings.
Jimmy Rollins also returned to the lineup tonight and went hitless in four at-bats, but played well in his return to the field. The team won again with Jimmy in the starting lineup and is now 10-3 in games that Rollins starts.
The Philadelphia offense struggled for the second day in a row as the lineup was only able to grind out four hits for the second game in a row, but they were able to make it stick tonight as the Phillies scored two quick runs in the first inning and hung on the rest of the night.
Ryan Howard hit a RBI single in the first and that started a 2-3 for for Howard to increased his batting average to .294 on the season as he is now without a doubt the hottest hitter in the Phils lineup as of late.
Tuesday's victory helped the Phillies climb back to within 4.5 games of the NL East lead. They currently trail the Atlanta Braves who lost on Tuesday night to the white-hot Chicago White Sox, who won their seventh game in a row.
Brad Lidge came in after some problems by J.C Romero in the top of the ninth to close it out. Lidge got his fifth save in six opportunties this season.
The Phils are back at it tonight when Kyle Kendrick takes the mound against Jake Westbrook, with the start time set for 7:05 pm.
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