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Moyer makes strong pitch to stay in Phillies' rotation

TAMPA - The past 23 years of Jamie Moyer's life have included plenty of nights like his most recent one, nights where the soft-tossing lefthander finds himself staring down not only opposing hitters, but conventional wisdom as well.

Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jamie Moyer throws in the first inning against the Yankees. AP Photo/Mike Carlson)
Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jamie Moyer throws in the first inning against the Yankees. AP Photo/Mike Carlson)Read more

TAMPA - The past 23 years of Jamie Moyer's life have included plenty of nights like his most recent one, nights where the soft-tossing lefthander finds himself staring down not only opposing hitters, but conventional wisdom as well.

What does that wisdom say? It says that a pitcher who allowed six runs in 1 1/3 innings of Game 3 of the 2008 NLCS should not turn around and pitch his club to victory in Game 3 of the World Series.

It says that a 30-year-old pitcher who finds himself opening the season in Triple A should not proceed to win 224 of his next 365 major league starts.

And it says that a 47-year-old coming off two offseason surgeries, plus a subpar season in which he was stripped of his job in the rotation, should not report to spring training in perfect health and then proceed to win back a position he felt he never should have lost.

But on a perfect spring evening, in a visiting ballpark packed with Phillies fans, Moyer did just that, holding the defending world champion New York Yankeess to two baserunners in 6 1/3 innings of a 3-0 victory in what could easily have been a make-or-break game in his quest to be the No. 5 starter.

"It doesn't surprise me," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "All along, I've seen him. I've seen him go to the minor leagues twice and you'd think he was done, and he fought his way back and became a heck of a pitcher. That don't surprise me. When he came to spring training this year, I expected him to be in pretty good shape and working hard, and nothing's changed. That's who he is."

Even if Moyer had struggled, there is a good chance the team would have decided to start the season with him in the rotation and Kyle Kendrick in the bullpen. At the start of spring training, pitching coach Rich Dubee essentially said that a starting spot was the Moyer's to lose. Instead, he might have won it, looking sharper than he did at any point in 2009.

He attacked dangerous righthanded hitters like Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Nick Swisher with crisp fastballs and cutters on the inside corner. He sprinkled in his gravity-defying changeup, one of which coaxed a cartoonish swing-and-miss from Brett Garnder in the fifth inning. Against a lineup he did not get to face in the World Series because of a sports hernia suffered in mid-September, Moyer dominated. He allowed one hit - a single to leftfield to Marcus Thames, the second batter he faced - and hit Curtis Granderson with a pitch.

"I really didn't have any pre-conceived notions of where I would be," said Moyer, who went 12-10 with a 4.94 ERA last season, then had sports hernia surgery and arthroscopic knee surgery in the offseason. "I came to spring feeling like I was in the best shape that I could be in for the amount of time I had to work out. As far as throwing, I was on schedule as if I had a normal offseason. But as far as working out and that kind of thing, I might have been a little bit behind. So I really didn't know what to expect, because I really haven't been through this kind of thing in the past. So you know what? Go wing it."

That's what he did last night.

When Teixeira made solid contact and sent a fly ball to right in the seventh inning, the crowd at George M. Steinbrenner Field responded with a roar. On a night like last night, that's what passed for action.

Moyer allowed only six balls out of the infield, had six strikeouts and got a couple of excellent defensive plays from third baseman Placido Polanco in the fourth inning. He retired the last 15 batters he faced, and left the game with two outs in the seventh to a standing ovation from the fans seated behind the visitors' dugout.

Just 4 months earlier, on the night before Thanksgiving, Moyer was facing a much different set of circumstances. Less than a month after surgery to repair torn tendons in his lower abdomen and groin, the veteran lefthander was admitted to the hospital with complications from his surgery. That came less than 3 weeks after he was hospitalized with a blood infection.

But even with his health bottoming out, Moyer never conetmplated retirement.

"It's hard to make a judgment like that lying in a hospital bed," he said. "To think that in a hospital, I don't think it would have been very fair to myself. If I said well, I think I'm done, because I'm laying in a hospital bed in November, I don't think after 20-some years, that's not very fair for me to make that judgment. You know what? If I come to spring training and I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it."

But Moyer has done it, and it's hard to imagine that the result will be anything other than him opening the season with a spot in the Phillies rotation. Kendrick has had a huge spring, but he is also more suited for a role in the bullpen. Last night, Manuel did not shed any light on the decision-making process.

The way Moyer pitched, he didn't have to.

"I kept the ball down and threw strikes," Moyer said. *

For more Phillies coverage and opinion, read David Murphy's blog, High Cheese, at http://go.philly.com/highcheese.