Game Recap 05.14.10: Phillies 9 Brewers 5

AP Photo/Morry Gash

Friday night, the Phillies partied like it was 1979 (you know, back when 47-year-old Jamie Moyer was only 16-year-old Jamie Moyer and his age was likely not a part of his title). The Phillies (21-13) donned throwback powder blue uniforms as a part of Milwaukee’s “1970’s Retro Weekend” in their 9-5 win over the Brewers (15-20) to start off the weekend series.

While the bulk of the Philadelphia area was watching the Flyers make history, the Phillies were in the midst of their own exciting victory. Ryan Howard wasted no time getting the hit parade started with a 2-run shot to right-center field off of former Phillie, Randy Wolf. Quiet since gaining the starting slot at shortstop, Wilson Valdez kept things going with an RBI double to score Ibanez in the second. After getting through the first with relatively no trouble, Moyer was shaky through the second, allowing three solo home runs to Prince Fielder, Jim Edmonds, and George Kottaras. The Phillies would regain their lead in the 4^th with another home run, this time off the bat of Raul Ibanez, aided by a set of triples from Valdez and Shane Victorino to make the score 6-3.

With Wolf done after 5 innings, the Brewers brought in starter-turned-middle-reliever Manny Parra to keep the game within reach. A few singles and a few fielding errors by Parra himself and the Phils were up 8-3. After breezing through the bottom of the 6^th, Moyer hit some turbulence in the bottom of the 7^th when he loaded the bases while only recording one out. David Herndon came on in relief and with his second pitch of the inning, delivered a ground ball to Valdez from Rickie Weeks. Valdez flipped the ball to Chase Utley at second for the out but Utley was unable to turn the double play and threw the ball past Howard at first, committing his second error of the game and allowing two runs to score on the play and Weeks to move up to second. Herndon was able to finish the inning with a strikeout, allowing the Phillies to maintain an 8-5 lead. Utley redeemed himself in the ninth, however, with a solo shot to lead off the inning. The Brew Crew would go down quietly in the bottom of the inning to allow the Phillies their 21^st win of the season.

Moyer (5-2, 4.57 ERA), coming off a CGSO last Friday, earned his fifth win after going 6.1 innings and allowing 5 hits and 5 runs (4 earned). Wolf (3-3, 4.66 ERA) would take the loss, going 5.0 innings with 6 runs on 7 hits.

The Phillies are set to face the Brewers again tomorrow at 4:10 ET, with Joe Blanton (0-2 4.97 ERA) up against Milwaukee’s Chris Narveson (3-0 5.06 ERA).

It’s a Tough Job, But Some Girl’s Gotta Do It

Kerri:  I was approached recently by Ryan Edmund of Long Drive to help him with a piece for his newest statistic. It was inspired by this article, which discusses a much underappreciated method of scouting players: the size of his butt. My job was to do exactly what we here at CDTLB are trying to convince the world that women don’t do—judge a list of players solely on their looks. While I hate to perpetuate the stereotype that all female fans care about is what a guy’s butt looks like in a pair of baseball pants, I couldn’t let Ryan down. This was all in the name of (pseudo)science.

The Best Bad Day Ever

By Kerri Donovan (@kdonovan13)

Someone much more cynical than I may have called Monday a bad day:

• Waking up before the crack of dawn on my day off 
• Driving 3 hours in DC rush hour traffic
• Being shuffled to four parking lots before finding one to settle in
• Waiting 45 minutes to get through Secret Service security

 

• Nearly fighting all 5 Natonals fans in attendance
• The traffic on the way out of the stadium
• And of course, the obligatory hangover from a long day of tailgating