The Phillies fell to the Tigers by the score of 2-1 in the first game of the series. Cole Hamels did great, but the Phillies didn’t score enough runs to help him out.
Cole Hamels had another great start today, giving up only 2 earned runs over 7 solid innings, recording 7 strikeouts. The Phillies jumped out to an early lead in the third inning, when John Mayberry Jr. scored on a Michael Young single to left field. The lead held until the 5th inning, when Cole made his only bad pitch of the night, a hanging change-up to Alex Avila, and he crushed it to left-center for a 2 RBI double. That gave the Tigers the 2-1 lead, and that ended up being the final score.
Tomorrow, the Phillies look to bounce back, and snap their 6 game losing streak with a win. The pitching match-up tomorrow was supposed to be Cliff Lee and Max Scherzer, but Cliff Lee has been scratched from his start because of a “stiff neck”. Raul Valdes will start in his place. The fact that Cliff Lee has been scratched from his start tomorrow leads to speculation, could this actually be a stiff neck, or are the Phillies making sure that he is healthy at the trade deadline, because they are planning on trading him? Nobody, except for Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr., knows.
The Phillies are going to need to get a good start from Raul Valdes tomorrow, because Max Scherzer is starting for the Tigers, and the Phillies probably aren’t going to score many runs off of him. Charlie Manuel is probably only expecting 3 or 4 innings from Valdes, given that he is a bullpen pitcher making a spot start.
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