My favorite pen finally ran out of ink.
The Rockies drew first blood in the fifth when Pat Burrell misplayed a single – or maybe even a FO-7 – into a two-out, RBI triple for Kaz Matsui.
That cinches it: Kaz Matsui is officially the Phillie Killer.
In 2007, Matsui went 3-for-9 with a homer against the Phillies, which is up from a 4-for-23 in 2006 and 6-for-33 in 2005. But in 2004 when he was with the Mets, Matsui had 22 hits against the Phillies, including a bunch of really strong games at the Bank. In one series in June of that season, Matsui picked up nine hits before adding eight more in the return matchup at Shea.
Most telling is that of Matsui’s 35 career hits against the Phillies, 10 are for extra bases.
During the Phillies’ half of the fifth they finally got a base runner when Carlos Ruiz walked. But he was quickly erased when Abe Nunez grounded into an inning-ending double play.
The Phillies kicked up another bit of a fuss in the sixth by putting two on with one out (and letting Moyer lead off the inning), but Pat Burrell popped out to left and Ryan Howard grounded out.
Man… the Phillies had two on and one out with Burrell and Howard coming up and got nothing. Such a bad time for that to happen…
As it stands now, the Phillies have nine outs remaining in the season.