Morgan pitches well, but Phils fall to Cards in 11 innings

“I didn’t have electric stuff early and next thing you know everything goes south when you don’t have your secondary pitches”, Velasquez said.

“I think a round of golf is probably going to solve it”, Velasquez said Sunday after losing his fourth straight decision, a 9-0 clubbing by the St. Louis Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park. “It looks like he’s trying to be ideal here”. Weaver will be making his second career big league start.

“You’ve got a guy like Hellickson that can give you the seven innings that we needed”, Mackanin said. “A lot of guys hit a lot of homers”.

The Cardinals had hit multiple home runs in nine straight games, tying a major league record, before failing to connect twice Saturday night in a 4-2 loss. It’s likely both infielder Jhonny Peralta and outfielder Tommy Pham will reach the double-digit home run mark as well with over a month to go in the season.

“We turned 3 double plays tonight, but that last one to end the game, that was a major-league double play”, Mackanin said. “I thought today might be a day, especially when Hazelbaker hit one early. You could it the way guys were taking their at-bats there was an opportunity to maybe do it again”.

Moss hit his 23rd homer and Leake added a two-run single later in the fourth for a 4-0 lead.

The Phillies are now 10-10 on both Saturdays and Sundays and are three games under.500 at home, 30-33 (.476).

Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said pregame that Morgan had to “do something” to prove he belonged at the big-league level, and he lowered his ERA to 6.21. Hellickson, making his first start since leaving his August 10 start with a lower-oblique injury, allowed two runs on seven hits.

“That was just what the doctor ordered”, Mackanin said. He pumped his fist into his glove after striking out pinch-hitter Greg Garcia to finish the seventh.

“After the first at-bat, I didn’t really think (Velasquez) could beat me with his fastball because I wasn’t necessarily looking for it and I got to it easily”. I can’t just throw fastballs all the time. Two outs later with Hernandez at third base, Franco smashed a single to left field.

After Hector Neris pitched a scoreless eighth, Jeanmar Gomez bounced back from his blown save on Friday by collecting his 33rd save of the season (with a little help from his middle infielders).

In a 1-2-3 second inning, he three just 11 pitches and struck out a pair.

Cameron Rupp put Philadelphia in front 2-0 with a broken-bat RBI single to left.

Since Carpenter moved from the first spot in the lineup to third, Cardinals leadoff men have hit just.250 with two walks in six games.

Indians 3, Blue Jays 2 – At Cleveland: Tyler Naquin hit a game-ending inside-the-park homer, sprinting around the bases to cap a two-run rally in the ninth inning as Cleveland stunned Toronto. Piscotty jumped all over a 1-2 curveball for a 5-0 St. Louis lead.

Altherr’s homer was the first the Phillies have hit off Broxton since Matt Stairs’ pinch-hit homer in Game 4 of the 2008 NLCS at Los Angeles.

Philadelphia SS Freddy Galvis has five RBIs during his seven-game hitting streak.3. After being treated at the seat for several minutes, the fan was carried out to the concourse by an adult into the waiting arms of medical personnel.

Phillies: INF Cesar Hernandez (sore right foot) was not in the starting lineup for the second straight game.

His seven strong innings saved the bullpen one night after an 11-inning game. Velasquez has now lost each of his last three starts, with 19 earned runs and eight home runs surrended in 16 1/3 innings.