Philadelphia Phillies suffer fourth consecutive loss as Pittsburgh Pirates win 6-3 - MLB Update
The team with the supposed best pitching rotation in all of baseball history, the Philadelphia Phillies suffered their fourth consecutive loss against the Pittsburgh Pirates who defeated them 6-3 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on June 4.
The Phillies hitting slump was supposed to be history after the arrival of Chase Utley, but that is definitely not the case as the Philadelphia struggled to score runs, let alone win games. A lot of effort was paid to acquire a world class pitching rotation,
but somewhere along the way while doing so, manager Charlie Manuel forgot to revamp his suffering offence.
The teams four ace’s have made sure that the Phillies have the best record for weeks, but the offence isn’t backing them up and that has led to one loss after the other. One had expected Utley to shake up the offence, which he did for a match or two, but
the Phillies are back to their terrible offensive self after that.
As if their humiliating defeat against the Pirates was not enough, there is a possibility that Jimmy Rollins might be heading towards the Disabled List after a fouled ball hit his right knee. Rollins was taken out of the game at the end of the third inning
and was seen to be walking with a limp although he wasn’t expecting any injury serious injury.
Rollins is one of the very few hitters who put up runs from among the poor offence. According to Manuel, he isn’t expected to play on Saturday. Manuel remained optimistic about the future for his team as he said, "I've seen us hit in the past. I was a player
for 20 years, and I've been in slumps, and sometimes you couldn't hit at all but you stay with it and things will get better. Things will get going. Every team goes through it."
As the Pirates pitcher, Charlie Morton was almost flawless and he surprised his team as well as Philadelphia with his strong performance in the seven innings that he pitched. Morton succeeded in retiring seven of the last eight batters that went up against
him on the field.
Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino and Raul Ibanez put up runs for the Phillies in the first inning, the fourth inning and the ninth inning, respectively.
The first run from Pittsburgh’s side came in the first inning as Jose Tabata scored after Andrew McCutchen reached third base. Tabata managed to squeeze in another run in the same inning after Lyle Overbay doubled.
The fourth inning saw runs being put up on the scoreboard as Overbay scored and Brandon Wood unleashed the only home-run of the game that covered a distance of 389 feet. Matt Diaz and Wood scored in the seventh and eighth inning to total their score to six,
against the Phillies measly three runs, effectively taking the win.
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