Welcome to Philly, Johan
(Photo courtesy of Ron Cortes/Philly.com staff photographer)
Friday night was one of those nights that Phillies fans would rather forget. After their crazy, improbable comeback win over the Giants on Wednesday, the team was looking to build momentum and stop the Mets' 7-game winning streak. The Phillies apparently forgot that in order to do this, they would need to: A) score runs, and B) prevent the other team from scoring runs. Kyle Kendrick had another outing that saw homers flying on sinkers that forgot to sink. He only gave up four of the nine runs that the Mets would score, with four more going squarely on Danys Baez' shoulders in an awful 7th inning. Brad Lidge, fresh off the DL, gave up a solo homer in the 9th to complete the rout. The Phillies were held to six mostly scattered hits, none of which were for extra bases. They ended the night a half game behind the Nationals and 1.5 games behind the Mets in the standings, which, no matter how early it is in the season, is a painful sight to behold.
Kendrick proving that Spring Training can't be trusted
(Photo courtesy of Ron Cortes/Philly.com staff photographer)
On Saturday night, the ball and the need for momentum went to Roy Halladay, and he did his best job of pretending that his previous five run outing at the Giants never happened. Bolstered by an offense that remembered how to hit, he had his third complete game and second shutout of the year. From ESPN, I learned that he now has more complete games than most other teams as a whole do, and I expect the year to end with that still being the case. Just a quick update from Todd Zolecki from this recent post about Mr. Halladay's season: "Halladay is 5-1 with a 1.43 ERA. He leads the majors in wins, shutouts, complete games, innings (49) and strikeout/walk ratio (9.75). He is fourth in strikeouts (39)." The offense did its part and broke the game open with a six run 4th inning against Mets starter Mike Pelfrey, who entered the game leading the league in ERA. The victory was a much needed rout and it ended the Mets 8-game winning streak and put the Phillies only a half game back in the standings. Their big inning against Pelfrey foreshadowed an even bigger one against an even bigger pitcher last night.
(Photo courtesy of Todd Zolecki/The Zo Zone)
Sunday's series finale match-up of Johan Santana and Jamie Moyer looked to be an easy win for the Mets, pitting their ace and one of the better pitchers in baseball in recent years against, well, Jamie Moyer. For the first three innings, Santana looked like a decent if not stellar version of himself and Moyer looked like Moyer, giving up two homers for a 5-2 ball game entering the bottom of the 4th. Santana was an out away from getting out of the inning after giving up a leadoff double to Chase Utley, when the Phillies decided it was time to really look like the Phillies again. Ibanez singled. 5-3 ball game. Carlos Ruiz walked, but that was okay for the Mets since Jamie Moyer was coming up with the bases loaded and two outs. Seven pitches later, Jamie Moyer was walking over to first base and Ibanez was walking over home plate. 5-4 ball game. Then Shane Victorino hit a grand slam, the second of his career. His first came under eerily similar circumstances, albeit in a more important ball game, game two of the 2008 NLDS, after Brett Myers heroically worked a walk against C.C. Sabathia. 8-5 Phillies. How many players in baseball have had their only grand slams come after pitchers worked walks against former Cy Young winners? Probably not too many. Following Vic, Polanco singled and Utley homered, making it 10-5. For some extra icing on the Mets-destroying cake, Howard singled and Werth doubled him home, to make it 11-5, which would be the final score of the ball game. Johan Santana had the worst night of his career, and Jamie Moyer had a typical night on the mound and an extraordinary night at the plate. As of 11 PM, when the game ended, the Phillies were back in 1st place and all seemed right in the world of baseball.
(Photo courtesy of Tim Shaffer/Reuters)
Going forward, we know that all is not right for the Phillies. Starters not named Roy Halladay remain a concern, though I'm still convinced that Cole Hamels is on the verge of returning to his 2007 and 2008 form. His strikeout and walk numbers are phenomenal, the problem is that opposing hitters seem to pounce on every bad pitch he makes, though they've been aided by a little luck. The bullpen also hasn't calmed down at all, with the revolving door still open for business between the Phillies pitching staff and the disabled list. The latest casualty was Ryan Madson, who of course would go on the DL by breaking his toe kicking a folding chair after his blown save against the Giants last Wednesday. Poor Antonio Bastardo has now been optioned to AAA, called back up, and optioned again in the last five days. This last optioning was to make room for Joe Blanton, who makes his first start of the season tonight in the series opener against the Cardinals. Hopefully Blanton will return as the solid, reliable presence in the rotation that he was for most of last year. And hopefully the wave of injuries ends with Madson and his broken toe.
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