Philadelphia Phillies’ offence backs up Cole Hamels to beat Colorado Rockies 2-1 - Part 2
The Philadelphia Phillies effectively picked themselves up from their four game losing streak as they defeated the Colorado Rockies 2-1 at the Citizens Ball Park, back home in Philadelphia.
In the first game of the two match series, Cole Hamels pitched eight almost flawless innings. He was every part of the world class pitcher that he is as he let five hits pass him by and sacrificed only one run in the duration of the eight innings as the
Phillies beat the Rockies. Hamels is at times sidelined by the other pitching greats of the Phillies’ line-up but he comes second only to Roy Halladay’s 2.22 ERA with his own 2.92 ERA.
"I know Colorado is a great-hitting team," said Hamels. "I knew I needed to go deep into the ball game."
Even though the hits were few and nothing too impressive, the Phillies gathered enough to help them win the game. This doesn’t mean that Philadelphia are out of their slump though, it only means the team with the best record in baseball has managed to avoid
their fifth consecutive defeat.
When it comes to runs per game, the Phillies currently come at the 28th position out of 30 teams as they average 1.75 runs per game. "I'm concerned about it," manager Charlie Manuel said of the team's hitting woes. "But with the pitching we have,
we'll keep chipping away and we're going to improve our offense. We're gonna get it done."
The first run to be put on the scoreboard was from the Phillies’ side. Wilson Valdez singled to left-field in the fifth inning as Raul Ibanez proceeded to score and Carlos Ruiz moved to third base.
The next run was from the Rockies’ side in the seventh inning as Todd Helton doubled to deep left-field and Carlos Gonzalez scored. With this run, both the teams were on equal footing and the win could have gone either way.
The Phillies were quick to cash in on the winning opportunity in the eighth inning as Jimmy Rollins hit a sacrifice fly to right-field and Valdez scored, effectively breaking the tie in their teams favour.
Ryan Madson finished his seventh save successfully in equal number of opportunities.
It will be interesting to see how the Phillies carry their winning momentum into their next match-up. Their offence is starting to back up the pitchers and provide some much needed runs for their side. Philadelphia has all that is needed to be at the top
of the League if their offence continues to contribute as a whole. The Rockies put in a decent performance, but it was not enough to contain the Phillies’ offence and brilliant pitching line-up.
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