Apres Howard, Le Deluge: Phillies 4, Braves 2

by dajafi on Aug 28, 2009 11:35 PM EDT

Another late August ballgame, another monster performance from Ryan Howard. The man Charlie Manuel has taken to calling "The Big Piece" did it again Friday night, pounding two more home runs and driving in three as the Phillies stretched their NL East lead to a season-high eight games.

Howard's first homer, a solo shot against Braves rookie Tommy Hanson, opened the scoring and came shortly before a sixty-eight minute rain delay that stopped the game in the bottom of the second. The game very briefly resumed... and then the tarp came right back out as the teams waited through another forty-five minutes of rain. When the game was back on, both Hanson and Pedro Martinez, soon to be known as Foul Weather Pete, were off for the evening. As was the case a week and a half back against Arizona, Jamie Moyer came on in long relief for Pedro--and, once again, he was terrific. Moyer worked 4 1/3 innings, allowing four hits and a run to qualify for his 12th win of the season.

He got more help in the fourth from Howard, who launched a two-run blast off Atlanta reliever Kris Medlen to put the Phils up 3-0. The Braves got a run back in the fifth on one of three Matt Diaz doubles in the game, but the Phils stretched the lead to 4-1 in the seventh on a Raul Ibanez triple and Pedro Feliz bloop single. Ryan Madson got into trouble in the 8th, allowing one run and loading the bases with two outs before getting Adam LaRoche to fly to deep center. The sellout crowd held its breath as Brad Lidge came on for the ninth inning. But the struggling closer put the Braves down 1-2-3, striking out Diaz to end it.

With the Marlins' 9-5 loss to the Padres, the Phillies lead both Atlanta and Florida by eight. They'll look to add another win against the Braves Saturday as Cliff Lee faces Derek Lowe.

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tremendous relief to get the first game

another win this series would be great. Any word on what Bobby Cox had to whine about postgame?

by Wet Luzinski on Aug 28, 2009 11:56 PM EDT reply actions

Double entendre?

7 innings, 2 runs is tremendous relief work… :)

by phatj on Aug 29, 2009 12:14 AM EDT up reply actions

did come to mind as I put that in the subject line.

Talking Chop posters not so much in love with Ryan Howard.

by Wet Luzinski on Aug 29, 2009 12:21 AM EDT up reply actions

Not Cox, it was Brian McCann this time (see the FanShot I just posted)

http://www.thegoodphight.com

by WholeCamels on Aug 29, 2009 9:53 AM EDT up reply actions

Hairstyling, eh?

Madson gave Lidge a buzzcut before the game. He then proceeded to pitch a 1-2-3 9th inning.

Now if only he could do the same to the rest of the bullpen, we’d be in good shape!

by RoboticParadox on Aug 29, 2009 12:16 AM EDT reply actions

My wish came true

I was hoping the rains would come and we could chase Hanson and get to their BP. I was confident the Phils’ BP could outpitch the Braves’, but not so much Pedro over Hanson.

Nice. Moyer looked great and the strikezone wasn’t huge for him tonight so I thought it was going to be dicey. McCann, who’s owned Moyer in his career, looked foolish against him.

Good stuff. Had the nastiest old Braves fan sitting next to me at the game who kept shooting everyone dirty looks and flipped off me and my toddler. And here we all thought they didn’t have any fans who gave a crap?

by doubleh on Aug 29, 2009 12:19 AM EDT reply actions

I saw your wishful thinking post earlier in the day. Good call. I was worried about the rainout.

The toddler flipoff is Klassy.

by Wet Luzinski on Aug 29, 2009 1:07 AM EDT up reply actions

And it was a woman, too! A bunch of the Phillies fans around here were harassing the Braves players a bit—we were close to the field 2 rows behind 3rd baseline—it was just funny stuff—and she didn’t take it very well. Some people take things to seriously in life.

by doubleh on Aug 29, 2009 1:27 AM EDT up reply actions

What worries me is Charlie’s gonna get the confidence back in Lidge and think he’s been right all along and he’ll just royally eff up his next “save” situation.

by SJPhillyVT on Aug 29, 2009 12:58 AM EDT reply actions

So...

…maybe this is a good routine. Pedro pitches for around 3 innings and Jamie pitches for at least 4 more, or maybe the whole rest of the game. Seems to be working.

by ajay on Aug 29, 2009 3:48 AM EDT reply actions

Magic number?

Bye, Big Stew and JJ :(

by JimmyK on Aug 29, 2009 9:33 AM EDT reply actions

Braves Announcers Are Sore Losers

I’m a Phillies fan living in Atlanta. The last series in Atlanta, the announcers kept crying that if the games were played in Philadelphia the Braves would be crushing the Philles. Now this morning, sports radio hosts are crying that the game should have never been started last night, which would allowed Hansen to pitch more. All these guys do is cry, whine and cry. We’re playing in the same stadium. I’m sick of all the poor losing. Your team is garbage and your best hitter is Matt Diaz.

by JWillystyle3 on Aug 29, 2009 6:49 PM EDT reply actions