Phils Demolish Yanks, 7-3

How great was that? It took the Phillies one pitch to take the lead tonight. Jimmy Rollins took the first pitch he saw from Yankees starter A.J. Burnett into the seats. Jayson Werth, Carlos Ruiz, and Raul Ibanez also went deep, in the Phils' 7-3 win. Every starter, except Ryan Howard, had a hit, including multi-hit games from Rollins, Ibanez, Werth, Shane Victorino, and Ruiz (three hits!). The Phillies had fourteen hits, and lead for the entire game. Awesome. So much for the Yankees' nine-game winning streak...

The best part of the game wasn't all of the Phillies home runs. It wasn't the Ibanez to Rollins to plate-blocking Ruiz play that prevented the Yanks from tying the game in the first inning. It wasn't the fact that Yankees' ace starter-turned-reliever Chien-Ming Wang entered with a 34.50 ERA, needing to pitch forty consecutive scoreless innings to reduce his ERA to 4.50. It was the outstanding performance by Phillies' starter Brett Myers. Myers did allow three more home runs, which could happen to anybody at the new, tater-wild Yankee Stadium. But they were all solo shots, and were the only runs he permitted in eight (!) innings. Myers did not walk a batter, and threw an impressive seventy-seven of his one-hundred and seven pitches for strikes. A non-quotation mark quality start for Myers, who has shown major improvement in his last three starts, and given the Phils a strong starter behind ace Cole Hamels. Now the Phils just need to fix Jamie Moyer and Joe Blanton.

After the game, reliever Sergio Escalona was sent to AAA Lehigh Valley, and outfielder John Mayberry, Jr. was recalled. This was expected, as the Phillies were carrying eight relievers, and needed a plausible designated hitter option for Saturday. (Against southpaws Andy Pettitte and C.C. Sabathia, Friday night's DH, Matt Stairs, is not a plausible option. Eric Bruntlett is never a plausible option.) Hopefully, Manager Charlie Manuel will start Mayberry, Jr. in left, and use Ibanez as the DH, as Mayberry is stronger defensively. Escalona pitched well for the Phils, and could be back this season. He can be optioned to and from AAA at will, without having to pass through waivers, so he might have a recall advantage over the option-less veteran relievers at Lehigh Valley (Mike Koplove, Gary Majewski, Tyler Walker).

The Phils face the Yanks again Saturday afternoon, in a nationally-televised FOX game. J. A. Happ enters the rotation for the Phillies. As he hasn't thrown more than fifty pitches this season, he might be limited to four, or five, innings. Luckily, Myers' start Friday enabled the bullpen, with the exception of Ryan Madson (one scoreless inning), to get the night off. Given the run-scoring environment at the new Yankee Stadium, especially in a warm afternoon game, both teams might need a lot of arms on Saturday.



Postgame Texts:

(40) Sergio, I'm coming up to the bigs!
(53) No way, we can be roomies!!!!!
(40) Umm, you might want to talk to Charlie

(39) Your move one
(35) Well-played, two.