Howard rescues the Phils bullpen

Last night in Pittsburgh, the Philadelphia bullpen tried to give up another game to the Pirates late in the game.  Ryan Madson(5-4) was charged with his fifth blown save as he tried to save Cole Hamels eight inning no run gem, but allowed a pinch hit game tying home run.  Ryan Howard got him off the hook in the top of the tenth with a three run blast as the Phillies went on to win 4-1 and Madson actually got the win.  The Phillies only other run was on a Chase Utley solo bomb in the first and although the Phillies won, it wasted a classic Hamels start.  Check out Phillies Phandom for more.

Brandon Moss came up as a pinch hitter for the Pirates shortstop in the bottom of the ninth and hit a shot to right center field and the Pirates had hope.  Unfortunately Steven Jackson(2-3) put two runners on before recording an out in the ninth and gave way to Phil Dumatrait who gave up the home run to Ryan Howard.  Paul Maholm got a no decision but pitched very well, holding the Phillies to five hits and one run over seven innings of work.

"Ace" Mike Pelfrey

Josh Johnson has owned the Mets over his career, and although he was shaky last night, he got another win against them.  Johnson(13-3) was off his game in going six innings and allowing nine hits and three runs, but held on until his offense could come through for him.  Cody Ross got the Marlins even with a triple scoring two runs and later Ronnie Paulino hit a two run home run… the deciding blow in 1 5-3 final.  Leo Nunez pitched the ninth again, striking out two and allowing one hit and recorded his 16th save of the season, FishGuts has more on the game.

Mike Pelfrey is now the defacto ace of the Mets staff, now that Johan Santana and Oliver Perez have joined the army on the disabled list.  Pelfrey(9-9) went 5.2 innings allowing 11 hits and five runs, including five walks, only two strikeouts and a home run.  He still seems to have a lot of trouble with men on base and should be his number one issue going into the offseason.  Fernando Tatis stayed hot against Josh Johnson as he doubled, scored a run and had one RBI while accumulating three total hits.  Corey Sullivan and Anderson Hernandez added the two other RBI’s for the Mets as they dropped their fifth in a row, The Real Dirty Mets Blog will have more.

Apparently the photographers in Atlanta took the night off, but so did the Braves relief pitching.  The Padres went into the sixth inning down 3-0, and left that inning up 6-4 on their way to a 12-5 victory and second in a row against the Braves.  that sixth inning included RBI doubles by Will Venable and Nick Hundley, as well as RBI singles by Luis Rodriguez and Adrian Gonzalez.  Eckstein added two more RBI singles later in the game, amont a Kouzmanoff two run shot and another Adrian Gonzalez RBI single.  Tim Stauffer(2-6) got the win going five innings and leaving only giving up three runs and six hits in this game.

Kenshin Kawakami had pitched five scoreless innings in this game, and then only recorded one out in the sixth and ended up charged with seven hits and four runs in the game.  Braves relief pitching over the final 3.2 innings gave up 11 hits and eight runs to put this game out of reach.  Brian McCann hit a three run homer in the first and an RBI single in the ninth and Ryan Church had an RBI single in the sixth for all the Braves offense.  The Braves Baseball Blog has more info on this game.

Finally, a win!

The Cubs looked like they were gonna have to fight for a win, late in the game yesterday, but luckily they ran in to the Nationals relief pitching.  The Cubs got six in the eighth to extend their lead and won the game 9-4 against the Nats.  In the eighth inning Koy Hill had a two RBI double, followed by doubles also by Mike Fontenot and Derek Lee and finally an infield single by Aramis Ramirez to score the final run.  Angel Guzman(3-3) got the victory in the game after Rich Harden pitched six strong innings but left with a tie score.

Livan Hernandez only found himself out of work for a few days as the Nats picked him up and had him right into the rotation.  Hernandez went six innings only allowing two runs on five hits and received a no decision in his first start back with the Nats.  Jason Bergmann(2-3) was charged with the loss as he gave up the go ahead run in the seventh on two hits and the bullpen gave up six more runs after that in just one more inning of work.  Willingham, Guzman, Nieves and Willy Harris all had RBI’s for the Nationals in the loss.  Check out CenterfieldGate for more.