Philadelphia Phillies defeat San Diego Padres 3-1 to wrap up series sweep - Part 2
The Philadelphia Phillies wrapped up their series against the San Diego Padres in a win thanks to Roy Halladay’s almost flawless pitching. He set a career high by striking out 14 players. The last time he struck-out 14 players was on June 2, 2009 against
the Los Angeles Angels.
The only other pitcher from the Phillies who managed to somehow get more strike-outs than Halladay in the last 90 seasons while walking one or fewer batters was Curt Schilling, as he struck-out 15 against the Atlanta Braves on April 5, 1998.
In the ninth inning, the only inning where the Padres got their act together to score against Halladay’s pitches Cameron Maybin singled and was on second base. Headley’s single successfully moved Maybin to third base, as he later scored on Venable’s hit.
Chase Headley was the only Padre to score, but even he could not deny the phenomenon that Roy Halladay is. Headley said, "You certainly don't want to put yourself in a position to salvage a game against a guy like him. If he's not the No. 1 guy in baseball,
he's close."
"They were just balls over the middle of the plate," Halladay said. "I think especially Maybin, I thought he went up looking first-pitch ambush and he got a pitch he could handle. If you go with something soft there or something down in the zone, we're OK."
In the seventh inning, Shane Victorino hit a home-run inside the park. His home-run was a first for the Phillies since Chase Utley hit one on July 9, 2009 against the Cincinnati Reds. As for the Padres, no one had managed one inside the park against them
since Garret Atkins from the Colorado Rockies on September 23, 2007. Venable tried catching the ball but it landed while Victorino was rounding the base and finished off with a headfirst slide. This was a first for his career.
This was the eleventh straight win for Philadelphia at Petco Park and overall it was their 15 win out of 16 played since 2008. The Phillies managed to put in a brilliant performance not only from their top notch pitchers, but from their offence as a whole.
The offence gave good support to the pitching line-up and gave much needed runs for the team. The Padres were unable to get anything going both offensively and defensively against the Phillies. Their performance was dismal and they are out of form and losing
successive games against many top teams. It will be interesting to see how the Phillies carry their winning ways into their next series. The Padres will be looking to put in a better performance in their future match-ups.
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