It's Not Going to Be Easy

The Phillies will play game four tomorrow afternoon. They have just finished losing to the Brewers 4-1 at Miller Park. The Phillies offense looked absolutely weak, scoring only one run against contact-pitcher Dave Bush and an average bullpen at best.

Jamie Moyer had a rough opening inning, giving up two runs. He then settled down to throw three shutout innings. Moyer threw 90+ pitches through four innings and was taken out as a result.

The Phillies offense looked powerless against the Brewer pitching. Let's look at this statistic. The Phillies had nine hits, which resulted in only one run. The Brewers had two more hits than the Phillies, and they scored four runs. The Brewers hit with runners on, and the Phillies struggled mightily when it really counted.

Let's take this time to talk about the dreadful ninth inning. The Phillies loaded the bases with no outs to start the ninth. Pedro Feliz came up to the dish, and grounded to third. Third baseman Bill Hall threw to the second baseman Craig Counsell, who relayed it to first for the double play. Shane Victorino took out Craig Counsell when he ran to second. Victorino basically bulldozed through him, and the umps called interference. They disallowed Howard's run and also pulled back Dobbs to second. Ruiz followed by grounding back to the pitcher for the final out of the game.

Like Jimmy Rollins said, it wouldn't be the Philly way if it came easily. And tomorrow will be a tough game as well. Joe Blanton (above) will be on the mound for the Phils, and countering him will be Brewers pitcher Jeff Suppan. Blanton has been all over the place this season, and nobody knows what to expect from him. He could pitch beautifully, but he is more likely to blow up around the fourth or fifth inning.

Come on Phils, couldn't you make it easy just this once.