MILWAUKEE – The Phillies’ ineptitude with runners in scoring position continued in the third inning when Jimmy Rollins laced a two-out double to left and remained there when Jayson Werth whiffed again.
In 10 at-bats so far this series Werth has struck out five times. Interestingly, the five strikeouts have come when Charlie Manuel put Werth in the No. 2 spot in the batting order.
Actually, the fact that Werth was in at all against right-hander Dave Bush is a bit odd. Though the right fielder hit .303 against lefties this season, he batted just .255 vs. righties. Moreover, Werth slugged 16 of his 24 homers against lefties in nearly half as many at-bats.
Veteran Matt Stairs or even ex-Brewer Geoff Jenkins might have been a suitable alternative in Game 3.
In other news, Milwaukee native Todd Zolecki’s sister is at the game wearing a Ryan Braun t-shirt. During the second inning word filtered through the press box that Todd’s sister caught a foul ball… well, she didn’t catch it out of the air. After the bounced around for a bit, Todd’s sister showed the famous Zolecki quick first step and pounced like a jaguar.
As a result, Todd’s sister is going home with a souvenir from a playoff game.
Nice work.
End of 3: Brewers 2, Phillies 0