Philadelphia Phillies beaten by St. Louis Cardinals 1-4 as Cliff Lee struggles on the mound – MLB
Starter Cliff Lee records his seventh loss of the season as the Philadelphia Phillies are beaten by the St. Louis Cardinals 1-4 at Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 11, 2012 in the second game of the three match series.
Cliff had another day which saw him getting little support from the offence. He has been victim of poor run support in the past.
While the Phillies scored one run in the first and kept their lead intact until the end of the fifth inning, they were unable to substantiate it.
For the same reason, their feeble one run lead was blown as soon as the Cardinals found a right opportunity in the game.
Phillies’ manager Charlie Manuel attempts to trace the failure to mediocrity of his offence on Saturday. If there were more hits produced by the hitters, the Phillies may have won the game.
"Our offense was really weak tonight," Manuel said.
In the top of the sixth, Cardinals rallied for three runs. As a result, they went two runs ahead of Philadelphia. Afterwards, instead of bouncing back, the Phillies gave in cheaply and did not score even a single run.
Apart from their first baseman Ryan Howard who grounded to second and led one base runner aboard, none of the batters could produce run for the team.
Their shortstop Jimmy Rollins was hitless in three at-bats. While their second baseman Chase Utley managed one hit, it did not prove productive enough as no RBI was generated.
Phillies’ starter Lee completed seven innings in the match and gave up four runs. In the beginning, he was in control but in the sixth inning he struggled to keep the batters from connecting big hits.
Lee is disappointed because he feels he was all set to winning but the rough up in the sixth spoiled the whole effort that he made from the start.
"I had the game in hand," Lee said.
It was the second game of the series. The Phillies can certainly embrace triumph in the last match if they can witness their offence stepping up during crucial moments of the game.
It will be interesting to note as to what extent they learn lessons and do not repeat mistakes in the upcoming games.
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