Categories: 2010 Game RecapsPosts

Moyer, Offense Flounder Against Fish

After the searing start the Phillies’ offense got off to in their first 10 games, it was bound to get shut down eventually. Saturday, that day finally arrived. Ricky Nolasco pitched a five-hitter, allowing only a late home run to Jayson Werth in a 5-1 victory over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

The real troubling thing about the game was that Jamie Moyer allowed his second five-run inning of the season – in the first inning, no less – putting the Phillies in an immediate hole. After back-to-back, carbon-copy RBI singles by Jorge Cantu and Dan Uggla, Ronny Paulino lofted a three-run homer just over the wall in left-center.

(Don’t forget – Paulino is the guy the Phils traded to the Giants for Jack Taschner a couple of months after the 2008 World Series. And is it me, or do former Phillies catchers always come back to hurt the Phils? I’m thinking of Rod Barajas here.)

Moyer righted himself to go six innings without allowing any further damage. And you could argue that the five-run first was irrelevant because one run won’t win many games, even with Roy Halladay on the mound. Speaking of struggling starters, Cole Hamels will take the mound Sunday for the series victory. You can say it’s only April, but beating division opponents is vital no matter the month.

Jon Fogg

Jon joined Phillies Nation in April 2010 and is perpetually grateful that the World Wide Web came along, allowing him to write about the team he has followed since, well, as long as he can remember. At his first Phils game, in 1991 against the Pirates at the Vet, Jon watched wide-eyed from one of those plastic, spine-numbing seats as a lanky outfielder named Barry Bonds cracked a two-run homer off Tommy Greene and a game-winning RBI double off Mitch Williams in the ninth. In those halcyon days, he listened to most games on the radio because cable TV didn’t extend out into in the remote swamps of South Jersey. Most days, you’ll find Jon looking for misplaced commas and devising flashy headlines at a newspaper; these days his publication of choice is the Baltimore Sun; he’s also worked at The (Allentown) Morning Call and The Washington Times.