PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia Phillies aren’t worried about baseball at altitude. The way their Citizens Bank Park has played this year, it has become a more dangerous place for pitchers than Coors Field.
Citizens Bank Park was host to 241 home runs during the regular season. Coors had 185.
“The ball carries good in Colorado,” said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, who managed at Colorado Springs from 1990 to 1992. “It’s a bigger park. Of course, deeper alleys, but the ball carries good. The infield, it’s big and spread out.”
The NLDS returns to Denver on Saturday. The Rockies led the league in hitting, at .280, including .298 at home, where they hit 103 of their 171 home runs.
“They say they are both hitters’ parks,” Phillies closer Brett Myers said, “but you know if you keep the ball down in any park, you’re going to be successful.”
One pitch doomed Lohse. Kyle Lohse, the victim of Kaz Matsui’s grand slam in the fourth, said he wasn’t uncomfortable coming in as a reliever for only the third time this year.
“I did it last year,” he said of his season with Minnesota and Cincinnati. “I made 13 (actually 15) appearances. It really has nothing to do with it. It’s just a lack of execution on one pitch.”
He said it. Jamie Moyer, 44, is in his 20th major-league season but only his third postseason. His veteran presence has helped the young Phillies pitchers come along.
“This is the first time in the playoffs, but everybody’s done this for a huge portion of their life, to play this game,” he said. “You live, you learn and you deal with it. And right now, our backs are against the wall, and you know what? We’re dealing with it, and hopefully we’re learning from it.”
Moyer starts Game 3.
Footnotes. Jimmy Rollins’ homer in the bottom of the first was the Phillies’ first leadoff home run in their playoff history. … In two games, the Phillies have struck out 18 times.
