EL1 Reading Fightin Phils

R-Phils Can't Find Home Plate in 6-2 Loss

Published on August 29, 2012 under Eastern League (EL1)
Reading Fightin Phils News Release


(Reading, Pa.)---The Eastern League's leading offense fell silent on Wednesday night when the Reading Phillies (73-64) were beat by the Binghamton Mets (66-71), 6-2, at FirstEnergy Stadium. The loss was just the third in the past ten games for Reading. While the R-Phils strung together 10 hits over nine innings, they could only plate two runs thanks to an RBI double from Tug Hulett in the fourth inning and a Jiwan James single in the ninth inning.

Since New Britain defeated Trenton, Reading's magic number remains at three with five games left in the 2012 regular season.

Slugger Darin Ruf went homerless for the first time since Saturday night, but he went 2-for-2 on the night with two walks to increase his batting average to .320 (150-for-469) this season. Ruf trails Eastern League batting leader Brock Holt of the Altoona Curve by two points for the league lead. Holt, who was promoted to Indianapolis in early August, qualifies with enough plate appearances to hang on among the leaders.

With his league-leading marks in home runs (37) and RBI (98), Ruf could be just the sixth player in the Eastern League's 90-year history to win the Triple Crown if he ties or edges Holt following: Joe Munson (1925), Bob Chance (1963), George Scott (1965), Danny Thomas (1976), and Lou Montanez (2008).

Reading found itself in a 3-0 hole after the first four innings. Starter Adam Morgan gave up a two-out RBI single in the first inning before walking two batters in the fourth inning. The two batters, Allan Dykstra and Eric Campbell, went on to score after run-scoring hits from Jefry Marte and Pedro Zapata.

Morgan received his first losing decision at the Double-A level after surrendering six hits and four walks over six frames while striking out a Double-A high strikeouts. Wednesday was just the second occurrence out of 26 appearances between Reading and Clearwater (A+) where the Alabama product has given up more than three walks. He also has notched 15 quality starts this season between his stops with both teams.

Following two scoreless innings from Julio Rodriguez, Jay Johnson entered in the ninth and gave up three earned runs on three hits to put the game's odds in Binghamton's favor.

First baseman Hulett, third baseman Cody Asche, and second baseman Miguel Abreu all tallied two hits in the loss. Asche has now produced three consecutive multi-hit games.

RHP Austin Hyatt (7-5/4.78) will get the call in the final regular season home game in Baseballtown on Thursday. Tune into 1340 WRAW-AM on the radio dial or online at 1340WRAW.com starting at 6:35 p.m. for the game broadcast with the voice of the Reading Phillies, Brian Seltzer.

Tickets for all regular season home games, including the 2012 Eastern League Playoffs, can be purchased online at www.RPhils.com, by phone at 610-370-BALL, and in person at the R-Phils Ticket Office at FirstEnergy Stadium. The 2012 season featuring the Baseballtown All-Star Classic at America's Classic Ballpark is presented by Pepsi.

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Eastern League Stories from August 29, 2012


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