Fightin' Phils Win Again!

Pat Burrell and Chase Utley continued their hot hitting to send the Phillies to their sixth comeback win in just 21 games.

The dynamic duo combined for five RBI in the Phillies 8-6 win over the Rockies. Utley knocked home two runs in the third to gives the Phils an early 2-0 lead. Burrell did it when it mattered in the ninth. Pat the Bat drilled a bases clearly double to left-center to give Philly an 8-6 lead.

The Phillies need the offense after Brett Myers looked as hittable as I can ever remember. He lasted seven innings, but surrendered 11 hits and two walks. Myers kept the ball over the middle of the plate all game and the Rockies made him pay. Luckily he mostly scattered the 11 hits to only give up the six runs, but it could have been much, much more.

Unlike Myers's last start against Houston, he didn't go after each hitter with fastballs. He started many hitters off with sliders and his cutter. This change in approach could be due to the catching change. Chris Coste caught Myers's last start and went with a fastball heavy approach. I remember noticing other games Coste caught, he tried to get his pitchers to go with the fastball first.

Carlos Ruiz caught Myers tonight and called a game heavy on the breaking pitches. I'm going to try to keep track of this and see if it's a trend that Coste calls for fastballs and Ruiz for the breaking pitches.

Chase Utley did it all for the Phils tonight. He had the RBI double mentioned before, but his biggest hit of the game came in the ninth. With one out and So Taguchi on first, Utley singled, but made the hustle play to get to second on the throw to third base. This set up an intentional walk to Ryan Howard and then the bases clearing double for Burrell.

Plus, Utley made another defensive gem which made top plays on SportsCenter. It's always nice to see his defense get recognized after he struggled a bit earlier this year with the glove.

Side note, did anyone notice on the Burrell double that Ryan Howard was literally ten feet behind Utley? He must have gotten one heck of a jump on the ball and Utley must have been holding at second in case Willy Taveras caught the ball in left-center. Even if this was the case, I would have thought Utley could out run Howard from second to home by more than ten feet.

Just thought I would point that out.

So far so good in the Brad Lidge experiment.

Lidge pitched a perfect ninth for the save. He struck out two Rockies in the process. He's now thrown eight scoreless innings to open the year with eight strike outs. The six walks are a little worrisome, but he's only surrendered four hits.

Quick Hits:

• Pedro Feliz notched three hits. He's starting to look more comfortable in this lineup.
• Jason Werth homered for the second straight game. He cleared the fence tonight, instead of going the inside the park fashion like last night.
• Ryan Madson pitched a scoreless eighth.
• Both Garret Atkins and Matt Holliday homered and doubled for Colorado.