Daal Rocks Colorado as Phils End Slide with 7-1 Victory

When Phillies manager Larry Bowa named Omar Daal the Phils opening day starter and in effect, the team's ace during spring training, he knew there would be games like this. Coming back to the Vet after being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers and in the midst of a four-game losing streak, Bowa would need Daal to be his stopper.

Against the hot-swinging Colorado Rockies no less.

But the Phils lefty, who was acquired in the Curt Schilling deal last July 26, looked like Schilling and teammate Randy Johnson rolled into one Tuesday night in a 7-1 win over the Rockies. For six whole innings, Daal allowed barely a base runner and nothing close to a hit. As it was, his bid for a no-hitter was broken up when Neifi Perez led-off the seventh with a double, but by then his mastery over the Rockies was nearly complete.

He was the stopper.

	Lefty Omar Daal took a no-hitter into the seventh in the Phils 7-1 win Tuesday night.

Daal (3-0, 3.13) pitched eight innings, allowing four hits after setting down 20 of the first 22 batters he faced. He struck out six and walked one, throwing an efficient and workmanlike 104 pitches that kept the Rockies guessing all night.

"This is the best I've felt," the lefty said. "My location was great and I kept the ball down and used all of my pitches."

At the same time, Daal had no idea he was throwing a no-hitter against a team that came into Tuesday night's game hitting a league-leading .303. All he was thinking about was maintaining the slim, 2-0 lead he had through six innings.

"It was 2-0 and a close game," Daal reasoned. "I knew I had to pull the thread and make some good pitches."

After Perez, he got the always-dangerous Larry Walker to ground out to second and then struck out Ron Gant. However, he wasn't able to take care of Todd Helton who hit a single to left to drive home Perez and make it 2-1.

With the way the Phillies had been hitting on their west coast trip, the situation looked fairly daunting. Leading just 2-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh, the bats would have to start moving, some how and some way.

With two outs and Travis Lee on second after a leadoff double, they did. Thanks again to Daal.

Bowa chose to let Daal hit for himself with two outs and Lee on second with the team leading 2-1. Asked if he considered pinch hitting for Daal in that situation, the manager said if there had been runners on second and third, the pitcher was out of there. But as it stood at the moment, Bowa's decision ended up opening the floodgates.

The pitcher slapped one into the hole between short and third, scoring Lee. Following the pitcher's lead, the Phils knocked out four straight hits: Brian Hunter singled, Jimmy Rollins knocked starter Denny Neagle (2-1, 4.15) out of the game with a RBI single. Scott Rolen greeted reliever Bobby Chouinard with a two-run double on his first pitch and Bobby Abreu followed with a RBI double.

All told that's a five-run, six-hit inning, which made it academic.

"They must have thought, 'The pitcher got a hit. We have to get one, too,'" said Daal, who is 2-for-11 this season with 2 RBIs.

Even though Daal wielded a clutch-hitting bat, the key was his pitching. Just 4-19 last year, Daal has looked every bit the ace Bowa has positioned him as. He moved the ball in and out against the Rockies Tuesday night, keeping them guessing where the next pitch may head coming out of his modified Luis Tiant-esque motion. He changed speeds effectively and, as he pointed out after the game, threw more fastballs inside.

"Sometimes pitchers get all wrapped up in the [radar] gun," Bowa said. "They can throw it 95 [m.p.h.] but it's as straight as a string. [Daal] moved the ball. He pitched inside more, which opened up the outside part of the plate.

On the outside looking in to the Phils clubhouse it may look like Bowa is asking for too much from Daal to be the Phils stopper. After all, the southpaw nearly lost 19 games a season ago and had an ERA of 6.14. But Bowa knew Daal wasn't as bad as his record indicated.

"He pitched well for the Phillies last year. [Third base coach John Vukovich] said he had good stuff, he just didn't get much support," Bowa said.

Then again, no pitcher in the history of baseball who lost 20 games (or close to it) was as bad as his record indicated.

Aside from Daal's gem, the Phils got some clutch hits. Catcher Mike Lieberthal gave the Phillies a 1-0 lead in the second on an RBI double that scored Abreu, who singled to start the inning. Lieberthal moved to third on a groundout and scored on Pat Burrell's sacrifice fly.

Meanwhile, the first six batters in the lineup got a hit and scored a run.

To top it off, the NL East leading Phillies were able to pick-up a game on the rest of the division. The win makes the Phils 15-10 and a full four games ahead of both the Florida Marlins and Atlanta Braves.

The series continues Wednesday night as Robert Person (2-2, 4.80) looks to rebound from an 11-0 loss to San Diego last Thursday. He will be squared-up against Pedro Astacio (3-1, 3.09) who is also coming off a bad outing. Last Friday, Astacio gave up six runs and 10 hits in seven innings in a 12-9 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

Notes: Daal didn't win his third game last year until Aug. 8. This year, the team is 5-1 in his starts.

John R. Finger
ComcastSportsNet.com