Thursday, April 03, 2008

Under the Boardwalk

Game 2
Nats 1, Phils 0
Record 0-2



The Phillies have spent the first two games wasting quarters on Whac-a-mole. First, it was the ugly starting and closing pitching performance on Monday. On Wednesday, it was the inept 1-hit effort against a very less than mediocre pitcher whom Don Sutton inexplicably thinks is similar to John Smoltz. Well, Tim Redding's results against the Phils last night were Smoltz-ian in every way except for the 2 K's which is quite a feat considering the way Ryan Howard, Pat Burrell and Geoff Jenkins's would all make great pitch men for Carrier.

Back to the second coming of John Smoltz for a moment. Exactly how does a guy with a 25-40 career record who has only one season in 7 years where he logged a full season of starts waltz into the Bank and shut out this lineup? Who knows?

All I can take from this is that it is much better for this team to get a great outing from Hamels (8 IP, 5 hits, 2 BB and 7 Ks) and lose then to have a crappy outing from Hamels and win. The Phils need this kid to pitch a full season and to stay as effective as he was last night. If that happens, my guess is that they will stand to win most of his starts.

Now let's see if middle relief can botch today's matinee. Death, taxes and a slow start for the Phillies. Can't avoid 'em.

5 comments:

T.J. said...

Well, I'll be damned...updates from all 4 of us on the same day. I venture to say this won't happen very often.

Nick said...

Heh-heh, anybody notice that I produced for the Phils in the blogospere what they are heretofor incabable of thus far?

rob said...

yes, i was going to point out the optimism implicit in your recitation of the phils' record.

T.J. said...

Even the birds are Massholes:

BOSTON (AP) - A 13-year-old girl touring Fenway Park on a school trip was attacked by a resident red-tailed hawk that drew blood from her scalp Thursday. She wasn't seriously hurt, but some observers saw an omen for a certain New York Yankees slugger in the attack at the home of the Boston Red Sox. The girl's name is Alexa Rodriguez.

T.J. said...

What a second, her name can't really be Alexa Rodriguez, right?