EL1 Reading Fightin Phils

Phillies fall to Thunder

Published on June 8, 2007 under Eastern League (EL1)
Reading Fightin Phils News Release


Reading, PA -- The Trenton Thunder arrived with the best record in the Eastern League, the product largely of a pitching staff that ranks second in all of minor league baseball.

The Phillies trotted out a hot-hitting club that was leading the league in batting average and home runs.

You know what they say when good pitching meets good hitting. Well, they can keep saying it, because Brett Smith and the Thunder opened a three-game series with an 8-2 spanking of the Phillies Friday night before 8,432.

The Thunder staff began the night with a 2.48 ERA. Smith, whose sinker-slider repertoire had the Phillies puzzled for much of his seven innings, came in with a stingy 1.79 ERA. The opposition was batting just .165 against the right-hander. In fact, minus first inning numbers, Smith, who features a fastball in the 88-91 mph range, owned a giddy 0.87 ERA. What's more, he at one point this year threw 32 consecutive scoreless innings.

And according to all reports, he isn't even the best they have.

Smith (5-2) allowed a run and seven hits while striking out five in his seven innings He did not allow a runner to reach scoring position till the seventh, while lowering his ERA to 1.74.

The Phillies (28-32) scored off Smith when Greg Jacobs picked up his second hit, moved to second on a wild pitch, and scored on Michael Garciaparra's second hit of the game. Jacobs led off the ninth with his ninth home run.

The loss went to Landon Jacobsen (5-4), who allowed five runs in five innings.

Justin Christian opened the scoring with a solo homer in the second inning, a 410-foot swat to left. Then, with two out in the fourth, the Thunder (37-21) loaded the bases on a pair of hits and a hit batsman. J.T. LaFountain stroked a sinking liner to left off the glove of a diving Matt Padgett for a double, and the lead was 3-0. Gabe Lopez followed with an opposite-field liner to right that scored two more runs, and for the second straight night the Phillies were in a deep early hole.

It became 7-0 in the seventh when Matt Carson lifted a two-run homer to left off reliever Allen Davis. After that they kept playing to stay within the rules of the game. Or until a thunderstorm halted play with one out in the ninth and the Phillies down 8-2 following a Jacobs home run, his ninth.

Forty-seven minutes later, Mike Costanzo ripped a gapper to right for two runs, but that's where it stayed.

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Eastern League Stories from June 8, 2007


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