Phillies Offense Explodes In Arizona

The Philadelphia Phillies set out on Monday night to take on the league-leading Arizona Diamondbacks.

The D'backs have the best record in baseball with a 21-10 record, after a tough loss on an error in the ninth to lose to the Mets. That loss is eerily similar to how the Phils managed to sneak away with a win on Sunday against the Giants.

The Phils sent the consistent Jamie Moyer to the mound, who has struggled to get run support and has limited his ability to last past the sixth inning.

Arizona, on the other hand, started 24-year-old Max Scherzer on the mound for the first time in his career.

The Phillies offense started early and kept the heat on. After a lead off double by Shane Victorino, the Phils scored a run in the first inning on a sac-fly by the struggling Ryan Howard.

The Diamondbacks got back quickly, scoring a run off an RBI triple by Stephen Drew in the bottom of the second, which tied the game at one run apiece.

Unfortunately for Scherzer, the Phils brought their bats to Arizona and they opened the game up in the top of the third.

Chase Utley doubled with one out, followed by a walk by Ryan Howard, and after Pat Burrell struck out swinging, the two-out rally began. Geoff Jenkins singled to center bringing home Utley to take the lead. Howard moved to third base on a wild pitch and was later brought home when Pedro Feliz reached on a fielding error by Stephen Drew.

Jenkins scored the teams fourth run on a single to center by Carlos Ruiz, and Jamie Moyer helped himself with a line drive double to left scoring Feliz and making the score 5-1.

That would conclude Max Scherzer's outing for the night and Arizona brought in Edgar Gonzalez to stop the bleeding.

Gonzalez managed to keep the Phils off the board for three straight innings, but in the top of the seventh the Phils got back to work. Geoff Jenkins led off with a single, and, two batters later, Ruiz singled to right as Jenkins advanced to third. Jamie Moyer laid down a sac-bunt to move Ruiz to second—the Phils second two-out rally of the night was on.

Gonzalez intentionally walked Victorino to get a better matchup with Bruntlett, but the Phils shortstop won that battle with a base clearing triple. Utley then walked, bringing up the struggling Howard, who singled on a ground ball to right to bring home Bruntlett for a 9-1 lead.

In the bottom of the seventh, Chris Snyder homered off Jamie Moyer to get the score to 9-2, but the damage was all but done. Moyer left the game in the eighth and turned the game over to the bullpen to hopefully secure his second win of the season.

The Phils tacked on two more runs in the eighth and ninth. The first off a sac-fly by Greg Dobbs bringing home Feliz, and the second on another fielding error on a ball hit by So Taguchi—allowing Utley to score.

With the score 11-2, Charlie Manuel turned the game over to Clay Condrey, whose 7.45 ERA has made it difficult for him to get innings, so this was the perfect opportunity.

After three singles to lead off the bottom of the ninth and a throwing error by Jenkins, allowing Miguel Montero to score, it looked like the D'backs were about to start a rally.

Condrey managed to get it under control and only allowed one more run on a ground out by Chris Burke.

The Phils finished with an 11-4 win against the league leaders and look to take the second game on Tuesday night.

The Phils expanded their lead in the NL East with a win on Monday by 1.5 games.