The Phillies (75-58) got the series win over the Los Angeles Dodgers today by a score of 5-1. Philadelphia was fueled by a couple of lead-off home runs by Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino.
Philadelphia has now won their last two series on the road and are above .500 away from Citizens Bank Park with a record of 33-32.
Roy Oswalt is 4-1 as a Phillie and his ERA on the season now hovers just over three at 3.01. On the afternoon, he went 6.1 innings and gave up only one hit while walking six and striking out six. Oswalt didn't give up a hit until the sixth inning when Casey Blake lined a clean single to left field.Oswalt's first September start is a good sign that he might be able to continue his momentum from the month of August. In the month, he went 3-0 with an ERA of 1.53 and in his last five starts including today he's pitched into the seventh inning and has only given up more than two earned runs once, when he gave up three against the San Francisco Giants in August 17th.
Oswalt had shaky command today as his six walks on the day is a season high and is one walk fewer than the seven he had in all of August.
Oswalt retired nine out of the first 11 batters he saw against the Dodgers.
On the flipside for Los Angeles, Clayton Kershaw pitched a great game but was hurt by the two home runs he gave up to Rollins and Victorino in the first and second innings.
Kershaw had Phillies hitters swinging and missing all day long as he piled up 11 strikeouts in six innings of work and only allowed five hits on the afternoon, but picked up his ninth loss of the season.
Philadelphia had 10 hits on the day and it's the first time they've broken the double digit mark in hits since August 24th against the Houston Astros in the 16th inning marathon and the last time they hit that number in a nine inning game was the previous night in the first game of the series against Houston.
Chase Utley had a three hit game and batted in two runs which is a great sign for the Phillies. The last time Utley had a three hit game was on June 24th against the Cleveland Indians.
The Phillies now have to go play a makeup game in Colorado tomorrow afternoon at Coors Field and Joe Blanton will be on the mound for that one and for all the struggles Big Joe throughout most the season, he's seemed to have corrected them in the past month.
Pitching on this team has not been a problem and Blanton has also been a part of the solution as in his career he has usually been a second half guy and it may be proving true again as his numbers in August were exceptional.
Blanton went 2-0 with an ERA of 2.81 in the month of August and in his last three starts he has pitched at least six innings in all of them and has an ERA of 1.86 with 19 strikeouts in those starts.
It will be interesting to see whether Blanton can continue his string of good starts and it now looks like the one thing that has always been a problem in the past for the Phillies is now the strongest component of this team, the pitching.
Photo Courtesy: FoxSports.com
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