Read More: Roy Halladay (P – PHI), Cliff Lee (P – PHI), Carlos Zambrano (P – CHC), Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs

(Sports Network) – Philadelphia Phillies co-ace Cliff Lee seems to be back to his old winning ways. Pitching against the Chicago Cubs has always put a smile on his face too, as the Phillies resume a four-game set with the NL Central inhabitants this afternoon from Citizens Bank Park.

Lee recently went through a stretch in which he compiled an 0-3 mark with a 3.66 earned run average in six starts, with the Phillies registering just two wins over that span. Lee has turned it on since then, going 3-1 with a 3.18 ERA in his last four starts, and threw seven shutout innings in his last start on Monday in a 3-1 victory versus the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The left-hander and 2008 AL Cy Young Award winner with Cleveland struck out 10 Dodgers and has fanned 10 or more batters six times this season. Lee is 5-5 with a 3.62 ERA in 13 starts and 4-1 in seven trips to the south Philly mound. He hopes to make it five wins at home when he takes on a Cubs team he is 3-0 against in four career starts to go along with a 1.71 ERA.

Philadelphia’s top ace and innings eater, Roy Halladay, was able to become the majors’ first nine-game winner in last night’s 7-5 victory over the Cubs in the second test of this set. The right-hander struck out nine and allowed six hits in seven shutout innings to push his 2011 mark to 9-3.

“I felt good and felt like I was making my pitches the whole time I was out there,” said Halladay, who notched his first win against the Cubs (1-3). “I was able to avoid trouble for the most part and the guys took care of the rest.”

The Cubs, however, put up a five-spot in the top of the eighth to make it interesting, as Phillies reliever Jose Contreras was reached for four runs in only one-third of an inning and J.C. Romero gave up the other run. Michael Stutes and Antonio Bastardo went the rest of the way to preserve the win, with Bastardo posting his second save.

Domonic Brown hit a two-run homer and Placido Polanco clubbed a grand slam for the Phillies, who have won four of six games since a four-game slide and are 3-2 on a season-long 11-game homestand. The Phillies lead the NL East by two games over surging Atlanta and own a 22-12 record in south Philly this season.

Philadelphia will also host Florida for four games on the homestand.

Meanwhile, the struggling Cubs have lost 11 of their last 14 games and are just two games ahead of last-place Houston in the NL Central. They almost fought back from a 7-0 deficit with a five-run eighth inning, but ran out of gas to fall to 2-6 on a three-city, 10-game road trip.

Aramis Ramirez and Lou Montanez both had two RBI, while Kosuke Fukudome and Starlin Castro finished with two hits apiece for the Cubs, who managed a 10-8 advantage in hits. Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano was shelled for seven runs and seven hits over 6 1/3 innings to absorb the loss (5-3).

“Obviously it was a big start and he took it as a challenge,” said Chicago manager Mike Quade about Zambrano facing Halladay. “He settled down after getting the ball up early. Once he got back into his game and kept the ball down he was much better.”

Zambrano struck out Rollins in the fourth for the 1,500th strikeout of his career, and is 4-4 in 10 games against the Phillies. Carlos Pena went 0-for-4 with a run scored, two K’s and a walk, but has reached base safely in 31 of his last 34 contests.

Taking the mound for Chicago today will be Matt Garza, who is having a rough first year for the North Siders. Garza sports a miserable 2-5 record and a 4.07 earned run average in 10 starts this season and is coming off an 8-2 loss at Cincinnati on Monday.

Garza lasted a season-low four innings and allowed four runs on six hits and three walks. The right-hander, who started the year 0-3 in his first five trips to the mound, is 1-3 in five road starts and defeated Philadelphia the only time he faced them in the regular season back on June 24, 2009 in a 7-1 victory as a member of Tampa Bay. He allowed one run in eight innings that day and also faced the Phillies in Game 3 of the 2008 World Series, tossing six innings of four-run ball in a no-decision on October 25.

Chicago won four of six versus Philadelphia last season, splitting a two-game series at Citizens Bank Park.

(Sports Network) – Philadelphia Phillies co-ace Cliff Lee seems to be back to
his old winning ways. Pitching against the Chicago Cubs has always put a smile
on his face too, as the Phillies resume a four-game set with the NL Central
inhabitants this afternoon from Citizens Bank Park.

Lee recently went through a stretch in which he compiled an 0-3 mark with a
3.66 earned run average in six starts, with the Phillies registering just two
wins over that span. Lee has turned it on since then, going 3-1 with a 3.18
ERA in his last four starts, and threw seven shutout innings in his last start
on Monday in a 3-1 victory versus the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The left-hander and 2008 AL Cy Young Award winner with Cleveland struck out 10
Dodgers and has fanned 10 or more batters six times this season. Lee is 5-5
with a 3.62 ERA in 13 starts and 4-1 in seven trips to the south Philly mound.
He hopes to make it five wins at home when he takes on a Cubs team he is 3-0
against in four career starts to go along with a 1.71 ERA.

Philadelphia’s top ace and innings eater, Roy Halladay, was able to become the
majors’ first nine-game winner in last night’s 7-5 victory over the Cubs in
the second test of this set. The right-hander struck out nine and allowed six
hits in seven shutout innings to push his 2011 mark to 9-3.

“I felt good and felt like I was making my pitches the whole time I was out
there,” said Halladay, who notched his first win against the Cubs (1-3). “I
was able to avoid trouble for the most part and the guys took care of the
rest.”

The Cubs, however, put up a five-spot in the top of the eighth to make it
interesting, as Phillies reliever Jose Contreras was reached for four runs in
only one-third of an inning and J.C. Romero gave up the other run. Michael
Stutes and Antonio Bastardo went the rest of the way to preserve the win, with
Bastardo posting his second save.

Domonic Brown hit a two-run homer and Placido Polanco clubbed a grand slam for
the Phillies, who have won four of six games since a four-game slide and are
3-2 on a season-long 11-game homestand. The Phillies lead the NL East by two
games over surging Atlanta and own a 22-12 record in south Philly this season.

Philadelphia will also host Florida for four games on the homestand.

Meanwhile, the struggling Cubs have lost 11 of their last 14 games and are
just two games ahead of last-place Houston in the NL Central. They almost
fought back from a 7-0 deficit with a five-run eighth inning, but ran out of
gas to fall to 2-6 on a three-city, 10-game road trip.

Aramis Ramirez and Lou Montanez both had two RBI, while Kosuke Fukudome and
Starlin Castro finished with two hits apiece for the Cubs, who managed a 10-8
advantage in hits. Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano was shelled for seven runs and
seven hits over 6 1/3 innings to absorb the loss (5-3).

“Obviously it was a big start and he took it as a challenge,” said Chicago
manager Mike Quade about Zambrano facing Halladay. “He settled down after
getting the ball up early. Once he got back into his game and kept the ball
down he was much better.”

Zambrano struck out Rollins in the fourth for the 1,500th strikeout of his
career, and is 4-4 in 10 games against the Phillies. Carlos Pena went 0-for-4
with a run scored, two K’s and a walk, but has reached base safely in 31 of
his last 34 contests.

Taking the mound for Chicago today will be Matt Garza, who is having a rough
first year for the North Siders. Garza sports a miserable 2-5 record and a
4.07 earned run average in 10 starts this season and is coming off an 8-2 loss
at Cincinnati on Monday.

Garza lasted a season-low four innings and allowed four runs on six hits and
three walks. The right-hander, who started the year 0-3 in his first five
trips to the mound, is 1-3 in five road starts and defeated Philadelphia the
only time he faced them in the regular season back on June 24, 2009 in a 7-1
victory as a member of Tampa Bay. He allowed one run in eight innings that day
and also faced the Phillies in Game 3 of the 2008 World Series, tossing six
innings of four-run ball in a no-decision on October 25.

Chicago won four of six versus Philadelphia last season, splitting a two-game
series at Citizens Bank Park.

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The Phillies batting lineup has seemingly been in a constant state of fluctuation so far this season.

Of the 64 games that the Phils have played so far this year, they have had 42 different batting orders, and that’s not including the pitcher’s spot.

Injuries have been one of the biggest reasons for all the change, but it goes deeper than that.

In the first 27 games of the year, Shane Victorino led off all but one of those games, while Jimmy Rollins was batting third.

The next 30 games would see Rollins leading off all but two of those games with Victorino batting second for the first 10 of those games before going on the DL. 

Placido Polanco started out the season in the two spot then switched over too the three hole until Chase Utley came back.

While all those changes were taking place, the first 40 games of the season also saw Raul Ibanez and Ben Francisco rotating out of the fifth spot behind Ryan Howard. 

Friday night’s game, No. 64 on the year, saw the debut of a lineup that the Phils have yet to use this year, but it resulted in seven runs, which they’ve only done twice in their last 30 games.

The lineup consisted of Rollins leading off followed by Victorino, Utley, Howard, Polanco, Ibanez, Dominic Brown, Carlos Ruiz and the pitcher.

It was only the 11th time in Polanco’s entire career that he has batted fifth.

The overwhelming consensus has been that the Phils need a right-handed power bat to protect Howard, and although Polanco would hit a Grand Slam in Friday’s game, he’s not considered to be much of a power threat. 

However, I think the team is at its best when it utilizes Rollins and Victorino’s speed at the top of the lineup and Utley and Howard at the three and four spot might as well be etched in stone.

So giving Polanco, the guy with the best batting average on the team, a chance to drive in more runs seems like a good idea.

The only change I’d make would be having Brown bat sixth, Ruiz seventh and Ibanez eighth. I’ve been very impressed with Dominic Brown’s ability to overcome all that spring training tinkering with his swing and his subsequent injury.

The way Charlie Manuel usually operates, it’s likely that he’ll trot this same lineup out for the next game, given its initial success.

I’m hopeful that this batting order might have some staying power, but then again, if it doesn’t, there are always 40,319 other combinations that might work better. Then again, math was never my strong suit, so you might want to check that number.

All in all, I’m fairly confident that the Phillies will find their groove with one of these lineups. Remember, as poorly as the offense has performed for the majority of the season, they still have the best record in all of baseball.

So sit back and enjoy the ride, Phils fans, because the bats will come alive, and when they do, the rest of the league is in big trouble.

Credit to baseballreference.com for these lineup numbers.

If the Philadelphia Phillies had managed to blow a seven-run lead against the National League’s long-running, always-rolling clown circus known as the Chicago Cubs, a surly Citizens Bank Park crowd might have turned vicious Friday night.

The 45,602 fans cranked up an old-fashioned Philly hate fest of boos directed at inept reliever Jose Contreras and even his more shoddy successor, J.C. Romero, in the eighth inning as the Cubs, they of the second-worst record in the National League, mounted a five-run rally behind such sluggers as Blake DeWitt, Geovany Soto and Lou Montanez.

Then in the Phils’ eighth, after the usually beloved Chase Utley struck out looking to lower his average to .230, there were scattered boos — a sure sign of thinning fan patience.

But in the end, the Cubs turned out to indeed be the lovable losers NL fans have been laughing at for generations and let the Phillies escape with a slovenly 7-5 win.

Through seven innings this one looked like a laugher. Roy Halladay, at his
near-best, slalomed through the Cubs with complete command (nine strikeouts and no walks). With their ace backed up by Placido Polanco’s grand slam (his 100th career homer) and a two-run dinger by Domonic Brown, the Cubs looked tame.

The Cubbies, who have lost 23 of 32 games and have the third-worst record in
baseball, rolled out their version of an ace in Carlos Zambrano, a pitiful if occasionally more entertaining (not always in a good way) shadow of the studs the Phillies’ rotation deploys.

Zambrano was last seen in St. Louis throwing a temper tantrum after another Cubbie disaster in which he said the Cubs “stink,” are “embarrassing” and are “a Triple-A” team. While Zambrano’s analysis was, on the whole, more correct than not and more astute than usual from this source, that’s not really the kind of sentiment you’re supposed to state in public about your team.

Those that choose to speak in such fashion had better follow it up with a stronger effort than Zambrano offered Friday. He surrendered six unintentional walks in six-
plus innings, seemingly blaming Brown’s blast on catcher Soto and quarreling with Soto on pitch calls to the point where an extended conference was necessary.

Bet the word “stink” crossed some of Zambrano’s teammates’ minds Friday night.

But once Zambrano and Halladay departed, the game suddenly swung as the Phils’
aging relief duo couldn’t find the plate, walking a Zambrano-esque three batters in the eighth.

And when Michael Stutes, who had retired two batters to calm the Cubs in the eighth, walked Darwin Barney to lead off the ninth, suddenly a path was clear to a shocking Chicago win.

The crowd’s less-than-positive thoughts made it clear that a Phillies’ loss would have been the kind of defeat that sparks a crisis. Charlie Manuel’s bullpen would have come apart in his hands for the second straight night and his NL East-leading squad would have coughed up a huge lead against Zambrano’s Triple-A team.

However, these being the Cubs, they heroically charged to the Phils’ rescue with nonexistent fundamentals and dunce-cap strategy.

Starlin Castro, representing the tying run, finished up a poor at-bat by swinging at a wild outside Stutes delivery and striking out. The ball got a bit away from Carlos Ruiz and Barney stupidly tried to take second — Where was he going? What was he thinking? — and Ruiz gunned him down to end the threat and a batter later, the game.

In a changing world, good to know you can always count on the Cubs, now onto
their 103rd year of festively flailing futility.

But the Phils won’t always have the Cubs to bail them out of their problems. And the fans served notice Friday night that their patience with the Phils’ ills isn’t bottomless.

Brad Wilson can be reached at 800-360-3601 or bwilson@express-times.com. Talk about sports at lehighvalleylive.com/forums.

PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Phillies held off a spirited rally to defeat the Chicago Cubs 7-5 at Citizens Bank Park on Friday.

Philadelphia built a 7-0 lead on the strength of seven strong innings from starter Roy Halladay and a grand slam by Placido Polanco in the seventh inning, but nearly let the game slip away in the eighth inning.

“I tried to be aggressive,” said Polanco. “He (Zambrano) is a great pitcher and may only give you one pitch to hit in the at-bat.”

Halladay allowed six hits while striking out nine batters and did not give up a walk in seven scoreless innings to earn his league leading ninth win.

“I thought where we were at, we could get six outs,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “I thought we had the game in control.”

In stark contrast to Halladay’s brilliance, three Phillies relievers combined to allow five runs on three hits and three walks in the eighth inning alone before Michael Stutes induced a fly ball out by Kosuke Fukudome with two men on to end the threat.

Stutes gave up a lead-off walk to Darwin Barney in the ninth inning but struck out Starlin Castro and Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz threw out Barney attempting to steal second base for a double play. Antonio Bastardo closed out the game with a strikeout for his second save of the season.

Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano allowed seven runs on seven hits and seven walks while striking out five in over six innings, and left the game after serving up the grand slam to Polanco.

Shane Victorino scored Philadelphia’s first run in the first inning and Domonic Brown extended the lead to 3-0 with a two-run homer in the second inning. - Reuters

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – The Philadelphia Phillies held off a spirited rally to defeat the Chicago Cubs 7-5 at Citizens Bank Park on Friday.

Philadelphia built a 7-0 lead on the strength of seven strong innings from starter Roy Halladay and a grand slam by Placido Polanco in the seventh inning, but nearly let the game slip away in the eighth inning.

“I tried to be aggressive,” said Polanco. “He (Zambrano) is a great pitcher and may only give you one pitch to hit in the at-bat.”

Halladay allowed six hits while striking out nine batters and did not give up a walk in seven scoreless innings to earn his league leading ninth win.

“I thought where we were at, we could get six outs,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “I thought we had the game in control.”

In stark contrast to Halladay’s brilliance, three Phillies relievers combined to allow five runs on three hits and three walks in the eighth inning alone before Michael Stutes induced a fly ball out by Kosuke Fukudome with two men on to end the threat.

Stutes gave up a lead-off walk to Darwin Barney in the ninth inning but struck out Starlin Castro and Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz threw out Barney attempting to steal second base for a double play. Antonio Bastardo closed out the game with a strikeout for his second save of the season.

Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano allowed seven runs on seven hits and seven walks while striking out five in over six innings, and left the game after serving up the grand slam to Polanco.

Shane Victorino scored Philadelphia’s first run in the first inning and Domonic Brown extended the lead to 3-0 with a two-run homer in the second inning.

(Reporting by Mike Mouat in Windsor, Ontario. Editing by Ian Ransom)