Game 3 - Sunday Afternoon, April 3rd in Philadelphia
One Sentence Summary: Behind the big bat of Ryan Howard and the pitching of Roy Oswalt, the Phillies continued their march towards 162-0 with a decisive 7-3 victory over the Astros.
What It Means: The Phillies swept a season opening series for the first time since 1994 and it's the first time they've started a season with a 3-0 record at home since 1970. And it's way, way, way too early for this to have any kind of meaning, but it's nice to be in first place so early in the season.
What Went Right: The Phils led early and never looked back. Howard hit a three-run home run in the first, which was followed shortly by a Ben Francisco solo home run. Howard added an RBI-double in the third for his fourth RBI of the day, giving the Phils a 5-0 lead. (The double just missed going over the wall.) Howard finished the day 3 for 4 with four RBIs and Francisco went 3 for 5. Placido Polanco added two doubles. Oswalt pitched six innings in his first ever pitching appearance against his former team, striking out six while allowing two runs on five hits.
Featured Card: I've got to get these Topps Opening Day cards featured in early posts. It just seems weird to use one of these cards for a game in June . . . or May for that matter.
Other Stuff: Michael Martinez made his Major League debut this afternoon, batting lead-off and playing center field in place of Shane Victorino. He tallied his first hit and RBI in the sixth . . . Victorino is nursing a tender calf, although he added a pinch-hit RBI-single in the sixth.
Well, nice to see that at least the NL "can't miss" team remembered how to win.
ReplyDeleteMaybe all the Sox need is a trip to Cleveland?
ReplyDeleteThat's usually enough.
ReplyDelete