Phillies 4, Astros 3
W: Seanez (1-1) | L: Valverde (2-1)
Entering the bottom of the ninth with a 3-0 lead, Astros closer Jose Valverde completely tanked. First, he allowed a solo home run to pinch hitter Chris Snelling, then bored a slider into Chase Utley for a HBP. After he made good pitches to Ryan Howard for the K, he went to a 3-2 count on Pat Burrell before throwing a very straight waist high outside fastball that Burrell slammed into the right field seats to tie the game. Visibly upset, Valverde proceeded to whiff Geoff Jenkins on an inside slider that bounced off catcher Brad Ausmus’ mitt for a passed ball that allowed Jenkins to reach first base. The next batter, Pedro Feliz, hit a liner just past the diving Geoff Blum into the left field corner. With Jenkins running through a stop sign at third, leftfielder Carlos Lee finally corraled it and one-hopped cutoff man Miguel Tejada, who threw a strike to Ausmus seemingly in time to tag the sliding Jenkins, but he was called safe. Ballgame.
The Astros were in complete control of this game until the fateful ninth inning. Starter Shawn Chacon spun an eight inning whitewash allowing four singles and a pair of walks before being lifted for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the eighth. He managed to control the powerful Phillies lineup with pinpoint control of all his pitches, and helped by a pair of double plays, he only faced four batter over the minimum. He struck out five in his outstanding effort.
Chacon was helped by run-scoring singles from Tejada and Blum and a long sacrifice fly by Hunter Pence. Lance Berkman had a pair of singles and scored two of the runs, and Lee also had two singles to lead the offensive effort.
Tejada continued his impressive work with the glove, backhanding a hard shot in the hole with two on and two out in the sixth and firing a laser to first to retire the side.
One thing about baseball, tomorrow is a new day and a new game. 6:05 cst, Roy vs. Kyle Kendrick.