Tony LaRussa’s return marks Philadelphia Phillies defeat to St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 - Part 1
The return of St. Louis Cardinals’ manager Tony LaRussa from illness helped the team defeat the Philadelphia Phillies 3-1 at Busch Stadium, St. Louis on Monday, May 16.
Although the Philadelphia Phillies have tried to be strong in the face of almost all of their best players getting injured and going down to the Disabled List, their weakness along with that of Cliff Lee could easily be seen in the match against the Cardinals.
In the two game series, the Cardinals successfully secured the first victory after getting swept in the series against the Cincinnati Reds. This was definitely not good news for the Phillies, given that this is their third consecutive loss. For a team that
currently has the best record in baseball, and is on top of the Major League Baseball rankings for the fourth week straight, three losses in a row can easily change all that.
Missing from the Phillies’ roster in the match were Shane Victorino and Placido Polanco. Victorino is on rest as he recovers from hamstring soreness. Thankfully, he won’t have to go to the Disabled List for recovery where the best men from the Phillies’
line-up like Chase Utley, Brad Lidge, Jose Contreras and Roy Oswalt currently are. Polanco was given a day off.
Cliff Lee, one of the best pitchers in baseball, signed on to the Phillies in an unprecedented move after he hit the free agent market before the current season began. He declined offers from the mighty New York Yankees and the 2010 World Series runner ups,
the Texas Rangers. Both teams had offered much more money compared to the Phillies, but Lee left everyone boggled by choosing to return to a team that he was very fond of, the Phillies.
Since the season began, Lee has been pitching tactfully, but there have been one too many occasions where his team’s offence failed to back him up, which eventually led to defeat. It has been noticed that most of these incidents happen to Lee as compared
to the other pitchers like Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels or Roy Oswalt. However, even these pitchers have lost matches which could’ve easily been won due to the lack of presence of an offensive punch.
Sadly, this time around it wasn’t only the offence that contributed to the team’s loss, as Lee wasn’t his best self. He was more like a shadow of himself as he let six walks pass him by, which is a career high for Lee. He has been averaging 1.2 walks per
inning since the season began which the best in all of the National League. In this particular match he allowed six walks which is two more than what he has allowed all season.
Credit should be given to the Cardinals for their well placed and strategic six singles against the mighty Cy Young winner, Lee.
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