Philadelphia Phillies beat St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 as Chase Utley and Roy Halladay shine-MLB Update
The starter Roy Halladay is solid in eight innings as he helps the Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 at Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 10, 2012 in the first game of the three match series.
Halladay follows up with another great outing on the mound after putting up a splendid performance in his last start. He is improving thick and fast as he moves toward his prime form.
His credentials for keeping the opponents at bay even with fewer run support from the offence cannot be doubted. However, this year his performance has been far from what he is known for.
A tremendous spell of eight innings on Friday by him can go a long way in assisting Halladay in improving his win-loss record ahead in the season.
During the match, he struck-out eight and gave up one run. Even in the face of little support from the offence, Halladay restricted Cardinals and did not let them beat the Phillies.
Furthermore, the Phillies’ relief pitcher Jonathan Papelbon rightly protected the lead in the last inning. By throwing scoreless inning, he recorded his 25th save of the season.
Offensively, the Phillies saw their second baseman Chase Utley hitting a two-run home-run, which proved decisive in the end as the Cardinals did not launch any counter-attack late in the game.
Meanwhile, Utley is impressed by the way Halladay tricked batters in the game. He was rightly manipulating his throws and was not allowing the hitters to strike big hits on them. Furthermore, keeping such a formidable offence quiet in the game is no small
achievement for Halladay, he said.
"He was mixing his pitches, throwing strikes with all his pitches," Utley said. "The Cardinals have a very good offensive team. For him to pitch like that against those guys, it tells you something."
Halladay talks about the issues that led to his decline earlier in the season and how they have been resolved now by him.
"For me, it's mechanics," Halladay said. "It's getting my arm in the right position. I feel like I wasn't doing that and everything kind of wasn't tied together. I didn't feel like my lower half was tied together with my upper half."
The Phillies will like to continue their success in the upcoming games in the series. They will be hoping that the rest of their starters take inspiration from Halladay and perform equally well.
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