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Hunter Pence scored the winning run in his second game in a Phillies uniform when Raul Ibanez capped a big day at the plate with an RBI double in the 10th inning, sending Philadelphia over the Pirates, 6-5.
All eyes were on newest Phillie Hunter Pence to start the game, but it was Ryan Howard who ended up making the headlines. The Big Piece went 4-4 with a home run, a pair of doubles and three RBIs to lead the Phillies to a 7-4 victory Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park.
Cliff Lee gave up four runs, but did strike out 11 pitching into the 8th inning. He also went 2-4 at the plate and scored a run. All year we’ve heard about this hitting contest between the aces, at this point, it would seem clear that Lee is running away with it.
Hunter Pence made his Phillies debut and stepped to the plate in his first at bat to a standing ovation. The cheer he got had some extra juice as Ryan Howard had blasted a home run in the previous at bat. Pence would hit a ground ball and actually appeared to beat out the throw easily, but was called out anyway. He would go hitless in his next three at bats, but finally broke through with an RBI single in the eighth.
The Phillies have now won 8 of their last 11 and will send Vance Worley to the hill tomorrow afternoon as they go for the sweep of the Pirates.
Sports Network) – It was no secret the Philadelphia Phillies were in need of a right-handed bat. On Friday, they got their man and are expected to debut Hunter Pence tonight in the second of three straight meetings with the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates.
The NL East leaders acquired the All-Star outfielder in a deal with the Houston Astros. In return, the Astros netted minor leaguers Jonathan Singleton, Jarred Cosart and Josh Zeid along with a player to be named later.
The Phillies, who also received cash in the transaction, have been lacking in production from the right side of the plate since losing Jayson Werth to free agency in the offseason.
They appeared to have found an adequate replacement with Friday’s trade.
Pence is batting .308 this season with 11 home runs and 62 RBI, which led the Astros in each category. He started yesterday’s game against the Brewers before being pulled in the fifth inning.
“We tried to address a need we felt was a missing piece. We believe in our offense as it stands, but it’s been a little inconsistent,” Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. “It gives us a little more balance … It gives us someone who is extremely well-rounded.”
Viewed as a cornerstone for a rebuilding Astros club, the 28-year-old Pence is headed to a team that has made the playoffs each of the past four seasons. He’s expected to bat in the middle of the lineup and could be inserted in right field starting tonight against the Pirates.
The Phillies, who enter this evening holding a five-game lead on Atlanta in the division, will have lefty Cliff Lee on the hill as he tries to snap an uncharacteristic four-game winless skid. Lee has given up 14 runs in that time and is 0-2. Most recently, he allowed 10 hits and five runs in a loss to the Padres on Monday.
This will be Lee’s second career start against the Pirates.
Countering for Pittsburgh will be 26-year-old right-hander James McDonald. He fanned a career-high nine batters and tossed 5 1/3 shutout innings of a 3-1 win at Atlanta Monday. He has won seven of his last nine decisions after losing his first two to start the season and is 2-0 with a 1.90 ERA in four starts this month. He brings an 11 2/3 inning scoreless stretch into tonight’s game. He’s also 3-0 in his last five road starts.
McDonald walked five batters and lost a 7-3 decision to Roy Halladay at PNC Park on June 5.
Halladay was in dominant form last night, going seven scoreless innings in a 10-3 Phillies win. Halladay (13-4) gave up just one hit with five strikeouts to win his second straight start while Jimmy Rollins added a two-run home run for the Phils, who were coming off a three-game set against San Francisco that saw the team drop the final two games.
Charlie Morton (8-6) was tagged with the loss and was pulled after four innings as he gave up eight runs — six earned — on nine hits with four walks and four strikeouts. Pedro Ciriaco had a pinch-hit, two-run double in the loss.
“The first two innings he couldn’t get the ball down,” said Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle about Morton. “We saw better stuff and results after the damage was done, which was unfortunate but I guess it’s something to build on.”
The Pirates enter Saturday in third place in the NL Central, 2 1/2 games behind first-place Milwaukee.
The Pirates took two of three games against the Phillies earlier this season at PNC Park from June 3-5. Pittsburgh is looking to capture a season series over Philadelphia for a second straight year after going 4-2 in 2010.
(Sports Network) - Pirates starter Charlie Morton has heard all season long of the comparisons between himself and Phillies ace Roy Halladay. Tonight, he gets a first-hand look at the real thing when the two square off in the opener of a three-game series between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park.
Morton's future in baseball seemed bleak after he went 2-12 with a 7.57 earned run average in 17 starts a season ago with the Pirates, but he has turned things around considerably in 2011. Through 18 starts, he is 8-5 with a much- more acceptable 3.69 ERA.
The right-hander's use of a sinker and the current motion of his delivery have led many to compare him to Halladay, reigning National League Cy Young Award winner and one of the current league leader's in victories. Surprisingly, Morton has been trying to shake the likening.
"It's not like we had posted frame-by-frame posters of him," Morton told Pittsburgh's website. "Anything that I was doing and anything I've done in my career mechanically has been done to benefit my career. It's not to gain notoriety because I look like somebody or I'm trying to be somebody.
"The only thing I try to do that he does is the tuck thing he does with his shoulder. And I doubt I even do it right."
Philadelphia got a good view of Morton on June 4, when the 27-year-old beat the club with seven innings of two-run ball. It was his first victory in four career games against the Phillies.
Morton, though, hasn't gone past six innings in seven straight starts since and departed after 5 1/3 frames on Sunday versus the Cardinals. He was charged with three runs on six hits and five walks, getting a no-decision in the club's 4-3 victory in extra innings.
Halladay, meanwhile, returned to form on Sunday versus the Padres after exiting his previous outing in Chicago after just four innings due to heat exhaustion, taking a loss. He rebounded to hold San Diego to three runs -- two earned -- on eight hits and a walk, striking out eight to win for the seventh time in eight decisions.
"He pitched pretty good. He was better at the end than he was at the beginning," said Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel about Halladay, who retired the final 10 batters he faced.
One of six NL pitchers tied for the league lead in wins, Halladay is 12-4 with a 2.55 ERA in 21 starts and the Phillies have won his past nine games at home. The 34-year-old righty is 7-1 with a 2.44 ERA in 12 starts overall at Citizens Bank Park this year.
Halladay is 2-1 with a 1.45 ERA in four career starts against the Pirates, including a victory on June 5 in which he allowed two runs over seven innings.
That was Philadelphia's lone victory of that three-game set in Pittsburgh and the Pirates have won six of the past eight meetings between the clubs.
The Phillies will try to get on track in this series after losing their final two meetings with the defending World Series champion Giants in a rematch of last year's NLCS. Thursday's 4-1 loss marked the first time Philadelphia has lost consecutive contests since a four-game slide from May 31-June 4.
The Phils went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position, but kept their five- game lead over the Braves for first-place in the NL East after Atlanta was dealt a 5-2 setback by Pittsburgh yesterday.
The Pirates were coming off a pair of extra-inning losses, including a 19- inning affair on Tuesday that resulted in Jerry Meals' blown call at home that handed Atlanta a 4-3 win, but battled through a 47-minute rain delay in the fourth inning to split the four-game series.
Andrew McCutchen made sure additional innings would not be needed as he hit a two-run homer in the ninth.
"It's tough to go on the road in a four-game series and get more than two," said winning starter Kevin Correia. "It could have been worse and it could have been better, but I think we hung in there for what we had to deal with. Obviously, they had the same thing. To come out with two at least, that's kind of what you're expected to do when you play a good team on the road."
McCutchen ended with three hits and Joel Hanrahan notched his 30th save as the Pirates stayed 1 1/2 games back of the first-place Brewers in the NL Central.
Phillies 6, Pirates 5: Raul Ibanez Powers Phils To Sweep
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) – Hunter Pence scored the winning run in his second game in a Phillies uniform when Raul Ibanez capped a big day at the plate with an RBI double in the 10th inning, sending Philadelphia over the Pirates, 6-5.
Ibanez went 3-for-5 with four RBI and two home runs, including a game-tying two-run blast in the eighth off Jose Veras.
Antonio Bastardo (4-1) hurled a 1-2-3 top of the 10th, and Pence hit a one-out double into the left-field corner in the bottom half to set the stage for Ibanez, who roped a line drive to right to complete the three-game sweep.
“I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit and hit it hard,” recalled Ibanez. “It was a good game. No one was giving in. Everyone continued to battle.”
Tony Watson (0-2) surrendered the final run to take the loss, Pittsburgh’s fifth in six games.
Pirates starter Jeff Karstens held the Phillies to three runs on seven hits in seven innings and was in line for the win before Veras coughed up Ibanez’s two-run shot in the eighth. Ryan Howard was thrown out at third on a Pence grounder to short prior to the home run.
“Karstens was outstanding. Changed speeds, hit his spots,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “We couldn’t put it away in the eight inning.”
Ibanez put the hosts on the board with his 15th home run of the season in the second frame, and Xavier Paul and Jimmy Rollins traded two-run singles in the fifth.
Lyle Overbay took Vance Worley over the right-field wall for a two-run homer in the sixth, and Garrett Jones doubled off Brad Lidge to plate Eric Fryer for a 5-3 cushion an inning later.
Ibanez had his first multi-home run game since September 8, 2009 and has 14 for his career…Worley had won his previous five starts and had made six straight starts of throwing five-plus innings while allowing one run or fewer before Sunday. He was charged with four runs on seven hits over six innings in the no-decision…The Pirates ended the month 13-13, while the Phillies went 17-8…The Pirates made a trade Saturday for first baseman Derrek Lee and added outfielder Ryan Ludwick in a deal with the Padres on Sunday. Both are expected to join the team during a three-game series with the Cubs, which starts Monday.
Jul 31 11:48p by Jason Brewer