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Game 81: Phillies Break Out Against Maholm

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Wouldn’t it have been great if the Pirates had gone undeafeated for the month of July and gotten back in the pennant race? Wouldn’t it be great if monopoly money was real? Wouldn’t it be great if cars ran on water?

The Phillies quickly ended the Pirates hopes of an undefeated month by scoring seven runs in the first three innings. Paul Maholm was in trouble early. Jimmy Rollins led off the first with a single. Shane Victorino tripled him in. After Jayson Werth struck out, Ryan Howard singled to score Victorino. More damage was avoided when Ben Francisco hit into a 6-3 DP.

Pittsburgh got one back in the bottom of the second when Pedro Alvarez connected for his first ML home run. But the Phillies soon broke it wide open. In the third the Phillies batted around and scored five times. They collected five hits – including three with two out – and were aided by a Bobby Crosby error.

After giving up a singled to Victorino and an RBI double to Werth to start the fourth, Maholm was done. His line score is ugly. Three plus innings, 10 hits, seven earned runs and two walks.

Justin Thomas relieved Maholm and gave up a two run dinger to Rollins in the fifth and a solo homer to Francisco in the sixth.

Late Pittsburgh RBIs were collected by Ryan Church (solo homer), Ronny Cedeno and Delwyn Young.

Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick went the distance. He gave up 10 hits and three earned runs (four total) and needed 114 pitches to do so.

The Good
Pirates hit two homers for the first time since June 6. First time since 6/24 that they collected 10 or more hits.

Welcome to the ML home run club, Pedro Alvarez. Here’s hoping you hit another 600, all in a Bucco uni.

Ryan Church had three hits.

The Bad
Maholm was ugly after having a strong outing against Chicago last time.

Bucs hit into three double plays.

The Rest
Maholm is now 3-2 in his career against the cross-state rivals. Kendrick is 3-0 against Pittsburgh.

Kendrick’s complete game was the 89th of the year. The fewest pitches needed to toss a nine inning complete game was 88 by near-perfecto Armando Galaraga. Edwin Jackson threw the most in his ‘gem’ – 149. This was Kendrick’s first career complete game.

Howard, Rollins and Victorino came into the game hitting a collective 6-38 against Maholm. They combined to go 6-7 in the game.

This was Church’s second three hit game of 2010.

Cody Ransom who was recalled earlier in the day made his 2010 debut and had two hits.

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