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Phillies complete sweep, tie Brewers for wild card lead

Sep 15, 2008 - 4:58 AM By Vince DiGregorio PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- It seems to be deja vu all over again for the Philadelphia Phillies, while everything continues to go wrong for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Brett Myers retired 27 of the 29 batters he faced to notch his eighth career complete game and added an RBI single as the Phillies completed a four-game sweep of the Brewers with a 6-1 victory in the nightcap of a day-night doubleheader on Sunday.

Pat Burrell, who had the game-winning RBI in the Phillies' 7-3 win in the first game, hit his 31st home run in the second game. Jimmy Rollins added a two-run single for the Phillies (83-67), who tied the Brewers (83-67) in the National League wild card race.

"We just couldn't get away with anything," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "Anything we tried to do, it just didn't work. Brett Myers threw great. (The Phillies) are hot right now. Everything is going their way. It was a good series for them."

Philadelphia also moved within one game of New York (83-65) for first place in the NL East, after the Mets dropped a 7-4 decision to the Atlanta Braves.

"It was good to get the sweep," Philadelphia's Jayson Werth said. "When you look back into last year when we swept the Mets about this time, that put us in a great position the rest of the way."

Philadelphia appeared to be falling out of contention for postseason action prior to the start of the four-game set with Milwaukee. It trailed the Mets by 3 1/2 games in the division and the Brewers by four in the wild card.

"We're a team of necessity and sometimes we put ourselves in positions where we got to win games," Werth said.

Pitching on three days' rest did not appear to affect Myers (10-11), who allowed only a two-out single to Ray Durham in the fourth inning and a two-out, solo home run to Prince Fielder in the seventh. He walked one batter, who was erased on a double play, and had four strikeouts over his 95-pitch outing.

"I felt fine. I knew I wasn't gonna have my best velocity or anything like that," Myers said. "Not only that, I just wasn't really looking for the strikeouts that I'm accustomed to looking for. I wasn't trying to get deep into the counts, because I knew I needed to keep my pitch count down."

Myers was the closer on the Phillies last season and was an intregal part of the team's surge down the stretch to capture the division title after being seven games down with 17 games to play.

After struggling in his return to the starting rotation this season, Myers spent time in the minors to work on his mechanics. Since rejoining the team, the Phillies are 8-2 in his last 10 starts.

"When I went down there, I got a better feel for starting," Myers said. "Back to where I was in '05 and '06. It was something that I needed just to get my mind set right for starting again."

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel was not sure what kind of pitcher Myers would be once he returned.

"I was hoping to get a guy back that would help us and he did much more than that," Manuel said. "I give him credit for his focus and staying calm, staying in control of himself more."

Conversely, it seemed that no matter what strategy the Brewers employed, it backfired. They twice instructed starter Jeff Suppan (10-9) to issue intentional walks, but both times the Phillies ended up scoring.

"Anytime we tried to put a situation in our favor, it just kind of backfired on us," Yost said. "Nothing really worked out for us anywhere."

Philadelphia took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Chase Utley's double play grounder before Myers keyed a two-out rally in the second.

Chris Coste was walked intentionally to put runners on first and third with two outs. Myers crossed up the strategy by lining an RBI single to right that made it, 2-0. After the runners advanced on a wild pitch, Rollins lined a two-run single to put the Phillies up, 4-0.

"Jimmy Rollins got the two RBI tonight because Brett Myers got a hit in front of him," Manuel said.

Burrell homered down the left field line to lead off the fourth inning. Later in the frame, Suppan walked Rollins intentionally to load the bases only to then walk Werth, the final batter he faced, to force in a run and make it, 6-0.

"We're just doing our jobs out there," Werth said. "We're continuing to play the type of ball that we're accustomed to. We did the little things that got us over the hump."

Suppan lasted 3 2/3 innings and gave up six runs on eight hits. The righthander walked three - two of them intentional - hit a batter and uncorked a wild pitch.

Fielder got the Brewers on the board in the seventh with his 30th home run of the season.