Moyer Schools Fish With Clutch Start

When the chips are down, call on the 45-year-old wonder. Jamie Moyer carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning and finished with an eight-inning, two-hit, one-walk, three-strikeout jewel of a performance as the Phils won, 3-0. He threw 102 pitches, 67 for strikes, and grabbed his seventh win of the year. He’s 7-3 with a minty 4.12 ERA, and is now 9-0 against the Marlins.

Basically, Moyer was effective against the free-swinging Fish. He had a gameplan, kept his pitches low and made the Marlins swing. Against this and other young teams he’s as good as any starter. If the Marlins are to challenge the Phils for first place all season, it’s huge to have Moyer on the good side.

Brad Lidge picked up his 18th save in 18 chances for the Phils, who are back up three games in the NL East and strengthened their lead over the Mets and Braves, who both lost today. Your standings:

Phillies, 40-28 (—)
Marlins, 36-30 (3.0 GB)
Braves, 32-35 (7.5 GB)
Mets, 31-34 (7.5 GB)

The offense took advantage of sloppy play by the Marlins, with two runs scoring on a Scott Olsen wild pitch. Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino turned on the burners and scored on the broken play; luckily they did — Ryan Howard struck out badly to finish the inning (he went 0-for-5, is back down to .204). I won’t write any more about him — there’s no use.

Jayson Werth collected an RBI single in the eighth to give the Phils the 3-0 lead. With the win the Phils will travel to Saint Louis for a three-game set with the evenly matched Cardinals, also sitting at 40-28. The Cards just placed Albert Pujols on the 15-day DL. Good timing.

Associated Press photo