Phillies win series against Cardinals behind offensive display and stellar Williams
The Philadelphia Phillies produced a rare offensive outburst again Justin Masterson and the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park, with Jerome Williams improving to 2-0 after another fantastic display on the mound.
It didn’t take long for the Phils to get started, as Chase Utley earned his 69th RBI of the season with a single to centre after Revere had walked to lead off the inning and advanced to second on a wild pitch.
More runs were to be added in the second as Dominic Brown and Cody Asche hit singles either side of a Nieves fly out, before Jerome Williams sacrifice bunted Brown home and Revere singled home Asche, making it 3-0 Philly after two.
The offense kept coming in the third when, following a Ryan Howard walk, Sizemore doubled to right putting runners on second and third, and Masterson’s wild pitch scored Howard. Wil Nieves then delivered an RBI single to make it 5-0, and the outing was looking rough for Masterson and the Cards.
Oscar Taveras hit an RBI single in the top of the 4th to reduce the deficit to 5-1, scoring Peralta after he had doubled to center with one out.
The lead was padded even further however in the bottom of the 7th as Jimmy Rollins hit his 16th homer of the year; a deep fly to left field scoring Revere who had singled with one out, and making it 7-1 Philadelphia, which it would remain for the remainder of the game.
Jerome Williams was the real star of the show today, pitching 8 strong innings of one-run ball, giving up just 5 hits, striking out 5 and walking 3. He improves to 2-0 with the Phillies and 4-5 on the season, with a 5.42 ERA in 2014.
Justin De Fratus provided an innings of scoreless relief in the top of the 9th, giving up just a hit and shutting down the game for Philly, moving to a 2.74 ERA on the year in the process.
Justin Masterson was roughed up again after mechanical issues have plagued his recent starts, giving up 5 runs on 6 hits over 3 innings, moving to 6-8 on the season in the process with a 5.88 ERA.
Nick Greenwood also surrendered 2 runs from the bullpen on 2 hits over his 3.1 innings of work, but Randy Choate and Carlos Martinez did combine to pitch 1.2 innings of hitless ball.
The Phillies move to 58-72 on the season, 17.5 games back of the red-hot Nationals and 2 games back of the New York Mets, whereas the 70-59 Cardinals lost ground on Milwaukee, falling 1.5 games back of first but staying 3 games up in the first Wild Card position.
Tomorrow, A.J. Burnett (6-14, 4.42) will toe the rubber for the Phillies who welcome the first place Washington Nationals and Tanner Roark (12-7, 2.80), first pitch 7:05ET from Citizens Bank Park.