Phils Fall To Fish

On a night where Jamie Moyer struggled with his control and the humidity, the Phils sure could have used some of their offensive prowess to bail out their 45 year old starter.

Didn't happen.

The Phils lost to Florida last night by a score of 8 - 2. Moyer struggled to go 5 innings last night and gave up only 2 earned runs. Moyer battled himself and his control all evening, walking 3 and hitting 2 batters (side note: as slow as Moyers pitches, it couldn't have hurt much). The bullpen, especially JA Happ, did not fare much better. Happ gave up the final 4 runs over the final 2 innings of the game as the Marlins smelled blood and appropriately salted the game away.

The only Phils offense came on a 2-run Shane Victorino homerun that was actually a foul ball. Third base umpire Dale Scott flat out blew the call, but the break did get the Phils within 2 runs at the time. They were unable to capitalize on the gift however.

The indication that this game was just not going to go the Phils was not going to go the Phils' way was the 3 double play balls the Phils managed to ground into everytime they seemingly tried to get anything going with men on base. All 3 double plays were hard hit grounders or liners hit right to a fielder, who happened to be in the right position for a variety of reasons (luck or good positioning).

The series continues tonite with Kyle Kendrick facing Anibal Sanchez at 7:05 at CBP.

Notes

- Ryan Howard is the worst fielding first baseman in baseball. Period. In the fourth inning, he misplayed a Hanley Ramirez cueshot, allowing the dangerous Ramirez to reach base when he shouldn't have (who went on to score). Subsequently, had a Mike Jacobs ball go right through his legs for 13th error on the year. I'm going to go out on a limb, without looking it up, and guess he's leading all first basemen in errors this year.

- Another ridiculous bunt play last night. This time, it was Florida. With pitcher Josh Johnson on 2nd after stroking a double, the Fish had Hanley Ramirez, with no outs, attempt to bunt Johnson to third. If Hanley Ramirez is your MVP candidate, you should have him swinging away in that circumstance. Instead he laid down a bunt that was fielded and the Phillies got Johnson going to 3rd. Brutal play by Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez.

Photo: (AP Photo/Tom Mihalek)