The Phillies (49-46) pulled out a tough extra inning affair beating the St. Louis Cardinals in 11 innings, 2-0. This was a pitching duel all the way as Cole Hamels was opposed by Cards ace Adam Wainwright, who was looking for his 15th victory today.
After giving up five runs or more in their last five games, the pitching finally stepped up for Philadelphia today thanks to a superb effort by Hamels and the bullpen to hold a potent Cardinals offense to only one hit. That one hit came in the fourth inning when Matt Holliday singled off Hamels, that was the only hit he surrendered in eight innings of work while striking out seven and only walking one.
Hamels didn't get a decision, but he was able to lower his ERA to 3.40 and has had a stellar month of July, one of few Phillies to be able to claim such a feat.This month, Hamels has an ERA of 1.74 and has gone at least seven innings in his last five starts, but like Roy Halladay this season, he hasn't gotten much run support as Hamels only has one victory to go with his All-Star caliber numbers in the month of July. The play of Hamels has made the idea of acquiring a pitcher like Roy Oswalt a mouth watering proposition, but it looks like that ship may have sailed.
Oswalt is now rumored to be potentially heading to the Cardinals as there are reports that say he is willing to take a pay cut on his 2012 option, the same option that the Phillies were told they would have to pick up to have to acquire Oswalt.
Now that Jamie Moyer is now expected to miss significant time, the Phillies are expected to bring J.A Happ back this weekend.
Though, this offense hasn't lived up to their end of the hype as they were billed to be an offensive juggernaut coming into the season and through the first month or so, the Phillies hit well, but due to injuries and long slumps, the bats have lost a lot of luster.
Philadelphia was shutout through 10 innings of play today even though they racked up double-digit hit totals, showing that hitting with runners in scoring position has been one of the biggest issues facing this team over the last seven weeks or so. They went 1-10 with runners in scoring position today.
With the two runs they scored today, it's the 46th time they have been held to three runs or fewer in 95 games, so they're scoring less than three runs per game in 48% of their games which is an astounding number considering the amount of talent lining this roster.
Looking at the offensive numbers for the Phils isn't any more fun, they are 12th in the NL in batting average, 13th in on-base percentage, 13th in stolen bases and 12th in hits. However, the Phillies are 5th in home runs, though I'm sure playing in Citizens Bank park helps that number a bit, as well as Ryan Howard warming up a bit.
And now the Colorado Rockies are coming into town, and they have been an offensive power in the NL this year, ranking in the top five in the NL in batting average, on-base percentage, home runs, RBIs, hits and runs.
Wow, hopefully the Phils can find some of their offense this weekend, because the Rockies are definitely going to score some runs. Then again, Roy Halladay is going tomorrow night and he's had an 1.87 ERA at home this season. This should be an interesting weekend series.
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