MARLINS 8, PHILLIES 2
Marlins finally beat Moyer
The Marlins managed to beat Jamie Moyer, who had been 10-0 against Florida entering Tuesday, and moved 1 ½ games behind first-place Philadelphia in the National League East.
Posted on Wed, Aug. 06, 2008
By CLARK SPENCER
PHILADELPHIA --
Much to the delight of the Marlins, pitcher Jamie Moyer is human. Much to their dismay, umpires are, too.
The Marlins nibbled into the Phillies' lead in the National League East on Tuesday. But they had to overcome not just Moyer, who never had lost to them, but also an umpiring crew that mistakenly awarded a home run to the Phillies.
Home run or no home run, the Marlins rolled to an 8-2 victory at Citizens Bank Park that pulled them within 1 ½ games of the first-place Phillies. In the end, the gaffe didn't matter, merely sparing the Phillies the ignominy of their fifth home shutout loss this season.
Josh Johnson turned in a pitching gem for the Marlins, and Moyer finally proved himself mortal by losing to the Marlins for the first time in 11 starts.
''It was bound to happen sooner or later,'' said Moyer, 45, the oldest player in the majors. ``The way I look at it, I beat myself [Tuesday night].''
The Marlins managed to score only two runs off Moyer, who worked out of one jam after another. And the only two runs Florida gave up came on a blown call in the seventh when Shane Victorino's long line drive to left off Renyel Pinto was ruled a home run.
Television replays clearly showed that the ball curled foul, next to the pole. After looking at replays after the game, third-base umpire Dale Scott admitted to a Philadelphia reporter that the ball was foul.
Major League Baseball could begin incorporating replays on home-run decisions this postseason.
But Tuesday's missed call didn't cost the Marlins, who kicked off an important six-game trip to Philadelphia and New York with a victory over the Phillies in front of 44,896.
''We didn't have to scoreboard-watch this time,'' Johnson said. ``We're here.''
Early on, though, it appeared that one failed scoring bid after another might come back to haunt the Marlins.
The Marlins allowed plenty of scoring chances to go to waste. They stranded eight runners in the first three innings and watched as a runner in the fourth was thrown out at the plate by 15 feet.
MOYER SCRAMBLES
Moyer walked a tightrope in every inning but the fifth.
If not for his bases-loaded walk to Jeremy Hermida in the second and an RBI fielder's choice by Josh Willingham in the fourth, Moyer would have performed escape acts in each of the first four innings when the Marlins stranded nine runners.
''He wiggled out of it,'' Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
As it was, Moyer left for a pinch-hitter in the fifth, trailing 2-0.
What Moyer couldn't control was his counterpart.
Johnson delivered his second consecutive winning performance by throwing six shutout innings. Though the Phillies had base runners in every inning that Johnson was on the mound, none made it as far as third, much less the plate.
He worked out of potential trouble in the second, when, after walking the first two batters, he retired the next three. And in the sixth, Johnson got Ryan Howard to bounce into a big double play after a Chase Utley single and before a Pat Burrell double that just missed going out, hitting the top of the wall in left-center.
It was the first time Johnson did not allow a run in a game he started since throwing five shutout innings at San Diego last season. That also turned out to be the last time he pitched before Tommy John surgery knocked him out of the picture. But he is back in it now, improving to 2-0 in five starts with a 3.34 ERA.
HERMIDA SHINES
The Marlins built a 4-0 lead in the seventh on Alfredo Amezaga's soft single. But the Phillies halved the lead in the seventh when Victorino ''homered'' despite protests from Willingham in left and third baseman Jorge Cantu, both of whom complained that the ball had gone foul.
Even after the four umpires conferred, the original call was allowed to stand.
But, other than the damage it caused to Pinto's ERA, none of it mattered in the end. Hermida matched a career high by driving in four runs, with three coming on singles in each of the final two innings, as the Marlins got their trip off to a winning start.
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