Phils Win Series Finale, Take Series Over Yankees

You knew that it would be a pitchers duel. You just didn’t know which pitcher would win.

It turned out that neither would get the decision.

Brad Lidge made sure of that.

For the second straight game, Lidge blew the save. This time, he just failed to pick up the loss along with it.

Lidge, who has been struggling as of late, gave up the tying run in the bottom of the ninth, after starting pitcher, Cole Hamels, threw a gem.

Hamels gave up 2 earned runs on 8 hits, over 6 innings. He ended up only throwing 109 pitches!

On the other side of the ball was New York Yankees pitcher, C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia was dominant. In fact, he was such an intimidating force, that manager Charlie Manuel decided against playing 2nd baseman Chase Utley, who was a lefty. As it turns out, the reasoning behind that was that Sabathia has not given up an extra-base hit to a lefty in over 27 straight outings!

Sabathia ended up allowing 3 earned runs on 9 hits, over 8 innings.

Both starting pitchers were in line to pick up the decision if not for Lidge’s blown save.

Offensively, Hamels was backed by a Raul Ibanez and Jimmy Rollins’ RBI doubles, and Shane Victorino’s RBI single.

It was a very quiet game other than that. For the Yanks, Mark Texeira homered on a broken bat fly ball to left field. Also, Johnny Damon doubled to right to bring in red-hot Melky Cabrera.

The scoring ended after the 6th inning until the Yankees made their run in the 9th.

Lidge, coming in after a terrible outing in the 2nd game of the series, was shaky from the start.

To start things off, Robinson Cano hit an infield single. Then, Ramiro Pena, who was running for Cano, stole 2nd base. From there, Cabrera hit an RBI single that brought Pena home to tie the game up at 3. Lidge managed to get out of the inning after that.

In extras, both Clay Condrey, pitching for the Phils, and Mariano Rivera and Brett Tomko for the Yanks, struggled, and just barely managed to get out of jams.

Finally, in the top of the 11th inning, with Chase Utley drawing a leadoff walk after he entered the game in the 9th, the Phils bats started to wake up from their short slumber.

Utley stole 2nd base after Carlos Ruiz worked the count full. Ruiz then proceeded to hit a double that brought in the winning run. The Phils were then retired after that.

Condrey worked a perfect 11th to get the Phils the dramatic win over the Bronx Bombers.

After the game, skipper Charlie Manuel came out and said that he was thinking about pinch hitting for Ruiz, but thought against it since Ruiz has been hitting so well lately. It turned out to pay off for Manuel, as Ruiz drove in the winning run.

Other highlights during the game were Jayson Werth’s outfield assist that helped nab Johnny Damon at the plate to prevent what would have been the winning run in the 3rd. This was the 2nd time in two games that Damon has been thrown out at home.

The Phils finished their road trip on a high note after losing a heartbreaker to the Yanks the day before. The Phils overall record on the 10 game road trip was 8-2.

The Phils are atop of the NL East by 1.5 games. The Phillies are red-hot, and it seems that they can do no wrong. The Phillies start a key 3 game series against the Florida Marlins tonight to start a 6 game home stand.