A Loss, a Win, and Brad Lidge

I've been remiss lately in posting due to busy-ness in life and work, so this will be a rundown of the events of the past few days. We lost a game, 6-2, behind Jamie Moyer giving runs and the offense doing very little Tuesday night. Mr. Moyer continues to inch ever closer to his very own all-time MLB record: most home runs given up by a pitcher. He'll take that away from Robin Roberts, who didn't do so badly as a Phillie a half century ago. Moyer makes his next start against some nobody named Johan Santana pitching for the Mets on Sunday, so that should be quite the pitcher's duel. It would actually be awesome if that were a pitcher's duel, like when Pedro Martinez outdueled Tim Lincecum last September 3rd. Speaking of Lincecum...

Timayyyy!

(Photo courtesy of Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

Wednesday's game started out as quite the strikeout pitcher's duel. Through five innings, Cole Hamels had struck out eight and given up one earned run, and Lincecum had struck out seven and given up one earned run, the first Ryan Howard homer in 65 at-bats, a career-high drought for him. Then it came apart a bit for Hamels in the 6th, when he gave up three more runs, though these all came after a questionable decision by Charlie Manuel to issue a one-out, intentional walk to Nate Schierholtz to load the bases for Lincecum. Hamels had also been squeezed by an at times absurdly narrow strike zone. No matter who was to blame, Hamels was out after six and the Phillies were down 4-1, the score that still stood going into the 9th.

(Photo courtesy of Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

The top of the 9th was when the game started getting weird. Well, it really started getting weird when Giants manager Bruce Bochy decided to pull Lincecum after he walked Victorino and put in his closer, Brian Wilson. Apparently Lincecum was on a pitch count after throwing a lot the game before, but Brian Wilson proceeded to load up the bases for Jayson Werth, who hit a fly ball on a two out, 3-2 count, that landed on the foul line for a double on that tied up the game. Wilson got out of the inning after that and David Herndon pitched a scoreless 9th for the Phillies. In the 10th, Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt gave up a run to the Phillies on a wild pitch in an inning that also included him hitting Brian Schneider and Placido Polanco. He managed to get out of the inning with the bases loaded, striking out Howard and Werth. Luckily for the Giants, Ryan Madson gave up a run in the bottom of the 10th, but also escaped a jam and the score was tied 5-5going into the 11th. The Phillies scored two more runs, first on a double by Wilson Valdez, of all people, and on an error by Giants left fielder Eugenio Velez, who dropped a pretty routine fly ball hit by Victorino. With the score at 7-5, the Phillies brought in none other than Nelson Figueroa to get the save, who did. But he gave up a run, and it took a spectacular play by Brian Schneider getting Juan Uribe out at home to save the ball game. So to recap: Madson blew the save and got the win. Nelson Figueroa got the save, his first in his ten year MLB career, and the Phillies won 7-6.

 Brian Schneider, saving the game

(Photo courtesy of the AP)

Coming out of this bizarre but much-needed win, the Phillies face the (I cringe writing it) 1st place Mets for a three game series this weekend. The biggest news of yesterday's day off was that Brad Lidge has been activated and will be available to pitch today, with Antonio Bastardo being optioned to AAA to make room on the roster. I certainly would not have thought at the end of last season that I would be excited for a Lidge return, but I am. As much trouble as the offense has been having lately, we all know they're capable of being one of the best in baseball. The rotation has had some shaky outings, but they have all shown potential and injuries have been a problem there, as well. The bullpen has been the closest thing to a true alarm bell for the season so far, and Lidge might just be the cortisone shot in the arm that the 'pen needs right now. Joe Blanton is also due back from injury soon, as early as this coming Monday, and that should shore up the rotation a bit. Meanwhile, the offense is due to get it going again, and hopefully that will happen against the upcoming series against the Mets and the Phillies will reclaim 1st place. It's time for the team to put this recent rough road trip behind them and start consistently winning again.

A Loss and a Contract

There isn't too much about last night's game to make a Phillies fan happy. Roy Halladay had his first loss. Interestingly enough, in three career starts in San Francisco, Halladay has given up exactly five earned runs each time. The Phillies offense seemed equally cursed last night, and came up with a less than pitiful performance, considering how many opportunities they had to score. They left the bases loaded three times, and the only run they scored was on a ground out, and even that needed a double steal by Shane Victorino and Placido Polanco following a rare walk of Polanco (only his second of the season). I have to give credit where credit is due, and the Giants offense and pitching were both effective. It was a tough game to watch on all accounts, and if it hasn't come time for this already, I imagine Charlie's going to have a bit of a chat with the team before long.

(Photo courtesy of Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)

Now that that bad news is out of the way, it's time to talk about something that happened yesterday of much greater significance than one bad game. That something was the biggest contract in franchise history, handed out to Ryan Howard: a five year extension worth a guaranteed $125 million, plus an option for a sixth year that would bring the total dollar value to $138 million. I have mixed feelings about this. I have written in this space before that Ryan Howard is overrated, but he still remains a great player. Even if all the numbers in the world show that Howard should not be paid such large sums, the market would undoubtedly net him at least as much if he had become a free agent after next season. In the short term, this does not change the payroll flexibility for the Phillies, since Howard will not receive a the bump in pay to $25 million until 2014. Additionally, I have no problem with him being paid $20 million a year in the short term, as the market demands. I, along with most everyone else watching this, do have concerns about Howard being paid $25 million a year when he's 34, 35, and 36 years old. However, what's done is done, and only time will tell now if this deal is a huge success or a huge burden for the Phillies. In the immediate future, on the other hand, this deal puts the spotlight squarely on on another player who is slated to become a free agent after this season: Jayson Werth.

 (Photo courtesy of Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)

The looming free agency of Werth has long be a subject of discussion, and I wrote a while ago that he is worthy the value people are assigning to him. It has been something of an accepted fact in many circles of Phillies analysts that Werth will walk after this year and become the subject of yet another Red Sox-Yankees bidding war. The Phillies organization itself has not conceded defeat, however. Even yesterday, as many immediately jumped to the conclusion that this Howard deal means a definite farewell to Werth, Ruben Amaro hinted that this was not necessarily so. Todd Zolecki also wrote that he's "gotten the sense recently that the Phillies think they can sign Jayson Werth to a contract extension." I would have no problem with the team raising the payroll ceiling to accommodate this. It will be interesting to see how the Werth situation develops in the coming months, especially in light of the Howard deal. If nothing else, the Howard deal means that the Ruben Amaro and the front office see much of this current team as the core for many years to come, and it remains to be seen if Werth will be a part of that or not.

(Photo courtesy of Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Razing Arizona

The title says it all in terms of what us fans might want to do to Chase Field right now. The same Chase Field where the Diamondbacks destroyed the Phillies and Cole Hamels in the first game of this series with home runs. The same Chase Field where the home plate umpire consistently failed to call strikes and this led directly to the go ahead and insurance run scored today in the 8th inning by the Diamondbacks. The same Chase Field located in the state of Arizona, which sees fit to openly discriminate against its residents. Yes folks, besides the Suns and the Coyotes (I'm pretty indifferent in the NBA and in the West in the NHL), there's a a lot to be upset with in Arizona right now.

Ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin with current Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, discussing how fun it is to sign discriminatory bills into law.

(Photo courtesy of Paul Connors/AP)

Friday night's game looked great for three innings, and it included a bizarre four base error on the Diamondbacks on Chris Young, who dropped a fly ball hit by Jayson Werth in the 4th inning and didn't realize the Werth had in fact not been called out as he rounded the bases. That came after a triple by Shane Victorino following a single by Cole Hamels, so the Phillies entered the bottom of the 4th up 2-0. That was when Cole Hamels' night unraveled and he gave up five runs on three homers to Mark Reynolds, Andy LaRoche and Chris Snyder, followed by another home run to Kelly Johnson in the 5th. Hamels still struck out seven batters in six innings. He has the stuff this year, he just gets hammered on his bad pitches, though there have not been as many bad pitches as we saw last year. This goes to show how much of a role luck plays in baseball sometimes. The Phillies would score two more runs, and Kelly Johnson hit another homer off the recently returned J.C. Romero. The Diamondbacks took game one 7-4.

(Photo courtesy of the AP)

Yesterday, Nelson Figueroa made his first and likely only start for the Phillies in 2010, filling in for the DL'd J.A. Happ. Figgy did exactly what a spot starter needs to do in such a situation: last enough innings and give up few enough runs that the offense and bullpen can take care of the rest. Figueroa gave up two runs, both on a homer by Kelly Johnson, an pitched five innings. Chad Durbin, Jose Contreras, and Ryan Madson combined to keep the Dbacks scoreless for the rest of the game. The Phillies offense didn't come through often, but three solo homers, two by Werth and one by Ibanez (his first of the season), was all the Phillies needed to win this one, 3-2. Incidentally, Werth also broke a nearly week-long home run drought for the Phillies when he homered in the 2nd. Good to see the long ball again.

(Photo courtesy of Paul Connors/AP)

That brings us to today's game, with resigned and appointed governors in attendance. The Phillies lineup was modified to include as many left-handed batters as possible against a lefty-free Diamondbacks pitching roster. This unusual lineup came through immediately, when Ross Gload had a leadoff single followed by a Greg Dobbs homer. Kyle Kendrick struggled early but got out of jams and settled in for the 3rd and 4th innings. Then he led off the 5th by giving up a single to the pitcher, former Phillie Rodrigo Lopez. Then a Kelly Johnson two run shot began the unraveling, leading to a five run 5th inning for the Diamondbacks. The Phillies responded with offense of their own in the 6th and took a 6-5 lead. Then Danys Baez pitched a shaky but scoreless 6th, and a shakier 7th where he gave up the tying run before being taken out for Antonio Bastardo, who got out of the inning. Then David Herndon came in for the 8th for the Phillies, and here the home plate umpire's inconsistent strike zone really hurt the Phillies. Hits that Herndon gave up to Mark Reynolds and Chris Young came after pitches that should have been, without argument, called strike threes. Those called balls came back to haunt the Phillies in the form of the go ahead and insurance runs for the Diamondbacks, who went on to win 8-6.

 Danys Baez, wondering why he's giving up hits throwing the same fastball over and over again.

(Photo courtesy of Paul Connors/AP)

The offense once again showed some life today, but the pitching failed. Kyle Kendrick continued to show the same issues he had in his first two starts, and like Hamels did on Friday, followed his previous gem with a weak outing. Both pitchers had their best outings of the season thus far end in Phillies losses the week before. This Phillies team is in a cold streak, even thought they're not on any sort of alarming losing streak. Still, we saw the potential for this team at the beginning of the season, and that feeling that we're watching a team running on all (or most) cylinders has been lacking in recent games. Maybe the injuries have something to do with it, and I hope that all injured Phillies rehab on schedule or sooner. That being said, there's no reason that the current healthy roster can't play better than it has lately. The offense needs to show up for the same games that the pitching does, and vice-versa. Hopefully Roy Halladay's start tomorrow night will once again render all other concerns moot.

Forever Young

47-year-old Jamie Moyer finally had the outing we had been waiting for. Finally, he skipped the one bad inning that plagued him in his first two starts, and pitched as he did in the rest of the those starts. For six solid innings. If not for a pair of Chase Utley errors in the 5th, Jamie Moyer would have given up zero runs in those six innings. As it stands, it's hard to get on Utley's case for those errors after the stellar defense that backed Roy Halladay on Wednesday. Utley's double play that night was more than enough to buy him some breathing room for a few games. Still, it would have been nice to continue shutting out the Braves. The greatest moment in Moyer's outing had to be when he struck out Jason Heyward looking in the 6th after throwing three straight balls to him to start the at-bat. Never mind that Jamie Moyer made his major league debut more than three years before Heyward was born.

(Photo courtesy of John Bazemore/AP)

The offense decided to show up again, tallying up eight runs through good, small ball playing. All of the runs were scored on either RBI single or sac flies, but I can't really complain when they scored more than three runs for the first time since last Friday's outing against the Marlins. Greg Dobbs also went 2-for-3 filling in for a bruised Placido Polanco at third for the first half of the game, and Juan Castro continued his suddenly hot hitting, going 3-for-5 and raising his average to .353. Ross Gload also had the second pinch hit of anyone coming off the bench for the Phillies this year, driving in a run in the 7th.

The bullpen decided to return to form last night. Chad Durbin and David Herndon both managed to pitch themselves into and out of jams, but that "out of" part matters much more than the "into." Durbin had the bases loaded for Brian McCann in the 7th, but managed to escape with only one run scoring on a sac fly by McCann before he struck out Troy Glaus, who seems to be booed every time he comes to the plate in Atlanta. In between Durbin and Herndon, Danys Baez had a nice 1-2-3 inning, which was reassuring to see after his last outing a week before.

The Phillies continue their road trip in Arizona tonight, facing the Diamondbacks for the weekend. Cole Hamels will take the mound tonight, and hopefully show that his 8+ innings, 2 ER, 9 K performance last Sunday is going to be the norm from now on. If he does, the bats better not forget to show up this time.

 (Photo courtesy of Todd Zolecki/The Zo Zone)

In the final news for the day, J.A. Happ was put on the 15-day DL yesterday after starting to throwing an abbreviated bullpen session and talking it over with the trainer and pitching coach. This is probably for the best, as the Phillies have Nelson Figueroa to cover tomorrow and can get away with a four man rotation after that through the end of this road trip. Happ's DL stint is back-dated to April 16th, so he'll be eligible to come off on May 1st. At this point in the season, and with a potential lingering injury like the one that Happ has, it's a good idea to err on the side of caution here. Plus, Joe Blanton is getting closer to making his return, so the Phillies have a little leeway in giving Happ extra time off. Still, another injury is another injury. Hopefully this will be the last of them for a while.

Putting on a Show

Roy Halladay. 4-0 for the first time in his career. So far he's got a 0.82 ERA (which Cliff Lee also had in his first four games as a Phillie), 33 innings, three walks, and 29 strikeouts. Just to be clear, half of his starts are complete games, which his first shutout coming tonight. The other two games could have been shutouts: he was only taken out on opening day because the Phillies had a 10 run lead and it was important to give the bullpen some time. Last Friday, he probably would have come out to finish the game if the infield had not been a puddle. To be clear, Roy Halladay was not taken out of those two games because he was struggling. In the last three games, Phillies starters have pitched 26+ innings and gave up two earned runs. Unfortunately the Phillies were only 1-2 in those games. Still, it's good to see Doc getting some company going deeper into games.

(Photo courtesy of Gregory Smith/AP)

The other half of this game for the Phillies was not the offense, which only put up two runs on a pair of RBI doubles by Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth, who has quietly put together nine doubles in 14 games. No, the other half of the game for the Phillies was the defense. If ESPN was short on material for web gems tonight, they aren't after this game. The highlights were definitely Shane Victorino making a sprinting leaping catch to rob Troy Glaus of a homer in the 2nd and Chase Utley's incredible diving catch to start the inning ending, bases-loaded double play in the 7th. Ryan Howard also had quite the diving stop in the bottom of the 9th to prevent the tying run from coming to the plate. Even Wilson Valdez, who came in for Placido Polanco after he was beaned on the elbow and suffered a contusion in the 1st, made a solid play at 3rd base to end the game. The defense has long been the unsung strength of this Phillies team, and today they showed why they've consistently been one of the best in the league.

Jamie Moyer is on the mound tomorrow night to go for the series win against the Braves. Let's hope he pitches like he did in innings two through six of Saturday night and not like he did in the 1st. Let's also hope that whoever is inevitably called in from the bullpen does his job well. Finally, let's hope the offense gets galvanized by tonight's win and destroys Derek Lowe.

Shades of Spring Training

Last night was another one of those games that turned from beautiful to hideously ugly for the Phillies pitching in the blink of an eye. It also looked remarkably like what we saw in spring training. Kyle Kendrick, he of the 17.47 ERA going into this game, did his best Roy Halladay impression since the Grapefruit League. He pitched eight shutout innings, including working himself out of a jam by inducing an inning-ending double play from Troy Glaus with the bases loaded in the 4th inning. The bullpen, on the other hand, continued to raise major questions that are real cause for concern going ahead. I was not watching this game, having taken advantage of half priced tickets to the Nationals-Rockies game, where I got to see the Rockies put up an 8-spot in the 3rd, but was otherwise fairly bored. Luckily I had that out of town scoreboard to keep my eye on, though I resorted to the more traditional "follow by Blackberry" method for the final three outs of the Phillies-Braves game. Or what should have been the final three outs.

 The AP trying to be artistically black and white with Kyle Kendrick

(Photo courtesy of Gregory Smith/AP)

Here's what I saw on the Blackberry screen. I first saw that Ryan Madson had come into relieve Kyle Kendrick, which made me very pleased that Kendrick had indeed been the pitcher keeping the Braves score at zero that entire time on the out of town scoreboard. Then I saw "M Prado grounded out to shortstop." One out. I saw "C Jones walked." Cause for concern, but not alarm. Then I saw "B McCann flied out to left." Whew, he's always a threat at the mound. Then I saw "T Glaus homered, C Jones scored." Alarm bells time. Still, the Phillies had a one run lead and there were two outs in the bottom of the 9th. Then I noticed Jason Heyward was the next batter and had a bit of a sinking feeling in my stomach that I tried to blame on the brisket sandwich I had eaten earlier from Teddy's Barbecue. However, that feeling proved to be accurate baseball intuition when I saw "J Heyward homered." Lead gone. Then Yunel Escobar grounded out, so the game wasn't over yet. So much for watching the final three outs.

Ryan Madson watching Troy Glaus round the bases

(Photo courtesy of Todd Zolecki/The Zo Zone)

Billy Wagner came on in the top of the 10th for the Braves, and I hoped this would turn out to be a mistake, using the closer to protect a tie, and the Phillies could shut down the Braves for one inning and get to the next reliever in the 11th. However, the Phillies were the ones shutdown, with Polanco, Utley, and Howard going down in order. Then Nate McLouth came up to the plate to face Jose Contreras. The Nate McLouth who went into this game hitting 4-for-27 on the year. At this point, I was hoping for a quick inning out of one of the few relievers left in the Phillies bullpen who hadn't had a bad inning yet. Unfortunately, that same Nate McLouth, 4-for-29 on the year at this point in the game, hit a walkoff home run, which was, of course, his first extra base hit of the year. As Kurt Vonnegut said, so it goes.

It's up to Roy Halladay to provide some relief from these losses tonight, which, in case you're keeping score, now tallies three straight and the last four of five. We all know he knows how to get it done, and let's hope he does so again on ESPN tonight. Now that Kendrick and Hamels have had some stellar outings, the rotation is no longer looking like the biggest question mark on this team, despite Blanton's DL stint and Happ's recent "mild flexor pronator muscle strain" that's causing him to miss his start tonight, though no DL time is predicted. The offense is fairly lackluster at the moment, but the Phillies offense has long been a streaky one, so that does not worry me. No, it is the one and only bullpen that is the problem going forward. I wouldn't have imagined saying this last season, but Brad Lidge  needs to hurry up and get healthy, as does J.C. Romero. Fortunately both are looking like they'll be back in the next two weeks. I still believe that Lidge is due for a comeback season, and his last few outings have looked solid. If he can get the velocity on his fastball back to the mid-90s and his slider command under control, he'll be an all-star closer again, even if he's not quite as unearthly as he was in 2008.

It's only April, so we're months away from any need for a panic button. These are just the issues that need addressing. I believe the bullpen will right itself in due course with the upcoming returns from injury, but a little help from the outside might be needed if these problems persist. John Smoltz for closer depth, anybody?

First Series Loss: Reflections Looking Forward

Today was the first series loss for the Phillies this year, and the torrid offense of just days ago decided to take the weekend off, scoring only one run in the last two games. While offenses go through ups and downs, this was quite the precipitous dropoff for a team that went into yesterday's game averaging 7.7 runs a game. If not for a Jayson Werth solo homer in the bottom of the ninth yesterday, the Phillies would have been completely shut out by the Marlins this weekend. First for some recaps of this series against the Fish and then some general thoughts.

Friday's game was Roy Halladay's third start as a Phillie, and once again he did not disappoint. He went 8 strong innings and only gave up two runs. He probably would have completed another game if the field had not turned into a giant puddle by that point from all the rain, a puddle that no amount of Diamond Dry seemed to be able to quell. David Herndon came in for the 9th to protect the 8-2 Phillies lead, and proceeded to get charged with four runs on five hits, only two of which left the infield. The soaking wet infield. Herndon did what the Phillies have kept him around to do: induce groundballs. Unfortunately, ground balls hit into soaking wet turf don't tend to have the same bounce that they would get on dry ground. Madson had to come in to the record the save, which he did, thankfully. It was one quite an ugly 9th inning for the Phillies even though it resulted in a win, but once that win was notched, it was easy to look back and say it was mostly bad luck. It was certainly hard to do that as it was happening. Fortunately the offense had provided more than enough insurance against such bad luck, including solo homers by Polanco and Utley (his fifth in four games) and three RBI on two Juan Castro singles. Unfortunately, that was the last we saw of most of the Phillies offense.

(Photo courtesy of Tom Mihalek/AP)

Saturday night was Jamie Moyer's second start of the year, and as I've pointed out before, he made history with this start by being the first non-knuckleballer to make more than one start at the age of 47 or older. Unfortunately, he showed his age in the first inning, giving five runs including a three run shot to Ronny Paulino, who the Phillies possessed for the 2008-2009 winter but traded him to the Giants for Jack Taschner. In retrospect, not one of the best moves that Ruben has made. Back to the game at hand, Moyer then looked stunning for the next five innings, giving up two hits, no runs, and striking out seven. If that Jamie Moyer takes the mound all the time, he'll be able to keep his career alive a good while longer. If not, we'll see. The other story of the game was the lack of a Phillies offense, except for the Jayson Werth solo homer in the bottom of the 9th, making the final score 5-1 Marlins. I'd say that became the bigger story of the game after today's performance.

Today's game was at times painful and at times great to watch. Specifically, the Phillies offense was painful and Cole Hamels was great. Despite losing 2-0 to the Marlins, I consider this game to be a net positive going forward. The offensive slump is annoying, to be sure, but seeing Cole Hamels pitch 8+ innings with 2 ER (one of which was credited to him but batted in on a double given up by Madson) and  8 Ks was reassuring. First, Hamels is now the only pitcher other than Roy Halladay to pitch past the 6th inning so far this year, and he not only went past it, but he blew past it, throwing devastating change-ups and largely settling into a rhythm after giving up a solo homer to Dan Uggla in the 2nd. The offense, on the other hand, had some issues beyond the fact that they scored 0 runs. A ground rule double by Ben Francisco cost Jayson Werth the chance to score the tying run from first base in the 6th.  He could have scored later on in the inning when Ruiz flied out to center and Cameron Maybin's throw went to the backstop. However, Werth was too tentative in his running and stayed at third, and Hamels grounded out to end the inning. A forgettable day for the bats, but a great day for Cole Hamels.

 (Photo courtesy of Ron Cortes/Inquirer Staff Photographer)

With this latest loss, the Phillies have now lost three of their last four games. This is not cause for alarm, but certainly cause for concern, with the shaky Kyle Kendrick starting the next game at Atlanta on Tuesday and the probable starters after that being something of a murky situation. This murkiness came after it was announced that J.A. Happ has had some left arm soreness which could cause him to miss his last start. That arm trouble could definitely explain why his velocity was a little off in his start last Thursday and why he walked six batters in 5.1 innings. The last thing the Phillies need right now is another player to succumb to the injury bug. Here's hoping for good news when Happ throws a side session during the off day tomorrow. For now, the Phillies leave Philadelphia on a low note after an otherwise great season so far. The question marks are there for this team, but so is incredible potential.

In an un-Phillies related note, last night was quite the crazy night around baseball. First, the Cardinals and the Mets played a 20 inning game, where the first run of the game was not scored until the top of the 19th inning. I had been watching the game in the 9th inning and left my house for a few hours, got back and turned on my TV again, and assumed that Fox was replaying the game. Until I saw that it was the top of the 18th. And Felipe Lopez, a position player, was pitching for the Cardinals. I enjoyed the ride from there until the end of the 20th, and if you missed out on this game, go read the recap. Jayson Stark will undoubtedly write something about it as well in the coming days.

Another note around baseball: Ubaldo Jimenez, the Rockies number one starter and flamethrower, pitched the season's first no-hitter last night. In case you were wondering, the last time a no-hitter and a 20 inning game happened on the same night was back in 2003 when Kevin Millwood pitched a no-hitter for the Phillies against the Giants and the Cardinals beat the Marlins 7-6 in 20 innings. I mention that mostly to bring up the fact that no one has pitched a no-hitter for the Phillies since. I, for one, would have no problem with another no-no from one of our starters one of this days.