PBR - Roy Halladay tossed seven strong innings and Erik Kratz homered and drove in a pair to lead the Phillies past the Diamondbacks 3-0 on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park.
Halladay scattered three hits and allowed just four runners to claim his first victory since May 17. He struck out five and showed increased velocity from his recent starts, topping out at 93 mph.
"The last two games, I felt like things were going in the right
direction," Halladay said. "So to be able to get results after you're making
changes like that, it's nice. [Pitching coach Rich Dubee] has been
working a lot with me. So it's nice to have it pay off and feel like
you're improving."
Kratz, filling in for Carlos Ruiz, drilled a 2-0 pitch into the seats in left in the third to give the Phillies an early advantage. An inning later he worked a walk to force home another run to increase the Phillies lead to 2-0. Domonic Brown hit a two-out RBI single in the eighth to secure the victory.
Josh Lindblom notched two strikeouts in the eighth and Jonathan Papelbon finished off a four-hitter for his 24th save of the season. Ryan Howard chipped in with a pair of hits.
Joe Saunders surrendered two runs over 6 1/3 innings in the losing effort, snapping a four-game winning streak.
- Patrick Gordon is the editor of the Philadelphia Baseball Review. Contact him at pgordon@philadelphiabaseballreview.com or @Philabaseball on Twitter.
