Roy Halladay shines as Philadelphia Phillies defeat Texas Rangers 3-2 - Part 2
In the first match of the inter league series, the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League triumphed over the Texas Rangers from the American League. The Phillies defeated the Rangers 3-2 in a well fought match where ace pitcher Roy Halladay unleashed
his pitching prowess for eight nearly flawless innings.
The Phillies were victorious despite getting a mere four hits marking their seventh consecutive game where they have had six or fewer hits. This has become quite an alarming trend for the Phillies’ offence, as it seems they are lacking in providing their
pitchers with some quality support and putting runs on the boards.
Roy Halladay, as expected was nearly flawless in the entire duration of the match. What could have made the match truly flawless would be the omission of the two big swings that Halladay allowed from the Rangers side. Halladay managed to strike-out seven
as he let only one walk. This win comes as a pleasant change for the Phillies and Halladay, who despite pitching powerfully lost back-to-back complete games because of the offence not coming up with more than two runs.
"I don't think you can think about it," Halladay commented. "I think if you go out there trying to win the game yourself or do too much or feel like you can't make mistakes, it compounds the problem."
The first run of the evening was put up on the scoreboard from the Rangers side in the very first inning as Ian Kinsler struck-out and Elvis Andrus scored while Mitch Moreland effectively stole second base.
The next two runs were from the Phillies in the second inning and then in the fourth inning. The first one came along when Ben Francisco belted out a home-run that covered a distance of 392 feet. Obviously pleased with his performance, Francisco said, "It's
baseball. You're going to go through slumps, I feel good now. I feel I've worked on my swing a lot lately. Just keep hitting."
The next was courtesy of Raul Ibanez who unleashed a gigantic home-run that flew for a good 413 feet.
In the eighth inning, Moreland from Texas grounded out to the second base and Chaves scored.
The second match of the three game set will see the beloved Cliff Lee, an ex-Rangers pitcher against his former team-mates. It should lead to an interesting match, given that it was Lee’s pitching when he was with the Rangers that led Texas to the World
Series finale last year.
It will be interesting to see how the Phillies carry their winning momentum into the next game. The Rangers put in a decent performance, but it was not enough to contain the Phillies’ offence.
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