In last night’s 19 inning epic, one of the heroes was undoubtedly Wilson Valdez for what he did on the mound. This afternoon, things were turned on their head again when Cliff Lee was the star for what he did with his bat.
On a day where Cliff probably didn’t have his best stuff on the mound, he certainly made up for it at the plate. Lee was 2-4 with 3 RBI, including a bases loaded ground rule double in the 6th that put the Phils up for good. While Cliff might not have pitched to his high standard, Lee certainly wasn’t bad on the mound, giving up four runs and giving most of the bullpen the day off with an 8 innings effort where he struck out eight. Jose Contreras, who was activated off the DL today, came on to pitch a 1-2-3 ninth.
Chase Utley aso slammed his first homer of the season with a solo shot in the 8th inning. He’s still obviously working himself back however and was 1-5 on the day.
Raul Ibanez hit a three run homer in the third, Michael Martinez had a couple of RBI and rookie Domonic Brown looked good at plate with a couple of hits and a walk.
The Reds had some tough luck when starter Homer Bailey was forced from the game after just four innings with back spasms. That forced Dusty Baker to bring in Daryl Thompson, who was called up this morning, and make him pitch three innings to give his taxed bullpen a rest. Thompson was tagged for five runs and gave up five walks en route to to taking the loss.
The Phillies now head to Queens for a weekend series with the New York Mets. Roy Oswalt is scheduled to take on Chris Capuano tomorrow night.