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Pineiro bests Hamels in rare Citizens Bank pitchers duel

Jul 9, 2008 - 3:46 AM By Larry Dougherty PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- An old-fashioned pitchers duel broke out at hitter-friendly Citizens Bank Park and it was Joel Pineiro besting Cole Hamels to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 2-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night.

Pineiro (3-4), who picked up his first win since April 29, allowed five hits over 6 1/3 innings before giving way to the Cardinal bullpen to close out the contest.

"It seems forever, but I stayed positive," Pineiro said on his winless drought. "My thing is to go out there and give the team a chance to win and stay out there as long as I can and hopefully good things happen."

"He made pitch after pitch after pitch," St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa said. "Burrell had a few hits against him, but they were not bad pitches, that was just good hitting."

Hamels (9-6) was nearly as impressive, allowing just three hits with the two runs coming off solo homers by Rick Ankiel and Ryan Ludwick. The Phillies ace struck out eight in his seven innings of work to increase his total to 118 on the season, second among National League pitchers.

"Not to take anything away from the guys who were picked (for the All-Star game), but there is not anybody in our league better than that lefthander today," La Russa said. "No one does anything against him."

It marked the fourth loss in a row for the Phillies, who have seen their lead in the NL East dwindle to 1 1/2 games.

Hamels retired the first eight batters and 12 of 13 Cardinals before Ankiel connected on his 19th homer of the season to lead off the fifth. Ludwick touched Hamels for his 18th home run with one out in the sixth to account for the rest of the scoring.

"I don't think I made two bad pitches. I think I just made one," Hamels said. "(The one) to Ankiel, the way he hit was very impressive and I guess that's why he's a hitter now. I just admire it more than anything, because I know that I can't do it. I made a good pitch out and away and he absolutely crushed it. I couldn't do anything about it."

The Cardinals nearly added an insurance run in the eighth but right fielder Jayson Werth gunned down Chris Duncan at home plate after Duncan tried to tag up on a medium range fly ball.

The Phillies had their chances but the Cardinal defense was up to the challenge. With the bases loaded in the second, Pineiro was able to get Carlos Ruiz to ground into an inning-ending double play.

"I got the good sinker (on Ruiz) and he hit it right to (Cesar) Izturis and we did our jobs," Pineiro said. "I think that was the key to the game. We easily could have given up two or three runs. That was a big turnaround."

Philadelphia threatened again in the seventh, placing runners at first and second with one out. Ron Villone relieved Pineiro, and ended the frame by getting pinch hitter Chris Coste to ground into a twin killing.

Kyle McClellan took over in the eighth and tossed a perfect inning with Ryan Franklin closing the game to notch his 12th save.

Pat Burrell, one of five players on the NL's Final Vote List for the All-Star Game, had two of the Phillies' six hits.

"They are an outstanding ballclub, tough to pitch against," LaRussa said. "That is one of the outstanding pitching jobs of the year, to shut them out in this ball park."

It was the sixth shutout loss of the season for the high-powered Philadelphia offense, four coming at its own park.

"We've got to find ways to manufacture runs," Ryan Howard said. "We're not always gonna hit home runs and get runs across. We've got to start playing a little bit of small-ball and let the home runs come when they come."