The Bullpen Rears Its Ugly Head

We knew it couldn't last forever. The offense and bullpen simply could not cover up forever the fact that every starter not named Halladay has gone 6 or fewer innings in each of his starts. The offense didn't get it going until the 6th inning, other than yet another homer by Utley early on. They scored 3 more runs in the 6th, but Shane Victorino left the bases loaded, which would become one of many crucial stranding of runners throughout the game. Still, at the time the Phillies were up 4-1 against a lackluster Nationals offense, Ryan Zimmerman-less, that had only managed one unearned run up until that point, despite the fact that J.A. Happ walked 6 men. He may have a 0.00 ERA through 10.1 IP, but he has a pretty poor WHIP, or walks and hits per innings pitched, at 1.65. Just shows how some of the more traditional stats like ERA don't tell the whole story.

Anyway, on most days, going into the 7th with a 4-1 score against the Nationals would have been just fine. Only it became 4-2 with Bastardo pitching. A little worrisome but not terrible. Then it came apart in the 8th. Danys Baez gave up a home run to Adam Dunn, his first of the year, to lead off the inning. 3 batters later, after walking Ivan Rodriguez, an injured Ryan Zimmerman hobbled to the plate (okay, I'm exaggerating) as a pinch hitter, and of course hit a home run. 5-4 Nationals. Bad, but hey, this is the Phillies offense that scored 64 runs through 8 games so far this season. So after the Phillies were retired in the bottom of the 8th, it was up to Ryan Madson to hold it to a 1 run lead for the top of the order coming up in the bottom of the inning. Instead, he continued the first Phillies bullpen collapse of 2009, allowing batters on 2nd and 3rd for Rodriguez to bat them in with a single. 7-4 Nationals. Still, we believed when Victorino led off the bottom of the 9th with a 405 foot homer and Polanco followed with a single. Then Utley, Howard, and Werth were retired in order. 7-5 Nationals.

(Photo courtesy of Yong Kim/Inquirer staff photographer)

There's nothing left to do after a game like this but dust off and move on. The pitching was ugly, no doubt about that. Roy Halladay will be back on the mound tomorrow, and ideally that will give the bullpen much needed rest after today's implosion. As for the rest of the starters, Hamels has his issues but nothing major as of yet. Kendrick is clearly not going to last very long in the rotation, especially with Charlie moving Halladay up to tomorrow from Saturday, since there was an off day this week. This sets up the possibility that Kendrick's next scheduled start can simply be skipped with another off day next week. Joe Blanton should be close to recovered by then. Jamie Moyer's next start will be against the Marlins on Saturday, and it will be interesting to see how he fares against that lineup. In his last start against the Fish last year, he pitched 7 innings and gave up 1 hit, striking out 4. It will also be his day to make history, becoming the first non-knuckleballer in major league history to start more than one game at his age or older.

(Photo courtesy of Pat Sullivan/AP)

Many consider tomorrow night to be the real beginning of the Phillies season, after warming up against the Nationals and Astros for the first 3 series of the season. I don't buy this, but I do agree that the next series against the Marlins then after that against the Braves and Giants will be a truer measure of what the Phillies 2010 season will turn out to be. Game on.