REIGNING IN THE BRAVES (POST 9/8/10)

September 8, 2010   ·   philliesmania   ·   Jump to comments

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TECHNICALLY SPEAKING THE PHILLIES TAKE FIRST PLACE BUT THE REALITY IS THEY ARE TIE FOR FIRST AS THEY BOTH SHARE 60 LOSSES!

 

 

THE IMPORTANT THING IS DESPITE ALL THE INJURIES AND ABYSMAL OFFENSE THE PHILLIES HAVE CAUGHT THE BRAVES AND HAVE A LEGITIMATE SHOT TO PUT DISTANCE BETWEEN THEM BEFORE THEY MEET ON SEPT 20, 21, and 22 AT CITIZEN’S BANK PARK!

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AS for Tuesday starter Joe Blanton? Well he gave you acceptable Blanton-ish stuff and allowed 2 earned over 6 and 1/3 innings. That would stink for Halladay but you will take that from Blanton any day. Mr Bloated ERA has been pitching fairly well as of late so hopefully that bodes well for the rest of the season. But is he your #4 starter in the scenario that you need a #4 should you make the playoffs? Let’s worry about that later ………….

 

Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	PC-ST	ERA
J Blanton	6.1	6	4	2	2	5	0	101-68	5.15
A Bastardo	0.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	4-2	5.28
C Durbin (H, 13)	0.2	0	0	0	1	0	0	16-9	3.96
J Contreras (H, 13)	0.2	3	3	2	0	0	1	16-9	3.28
J Romero	0.0	0	0	0	1	0	0	4-0	3.66
R Madson (W, 5-2; B, 5)	1.1	0	0	0	1	3	0	19-12	2.74

 

The other plus is at least for 2 straight games the Phillies offense has done something. The bad news is that mental fatigue from playing for 20 plus days in a row is starting to cause stupid judgement at the plate and in the field. It almost cost them the game again Tuesday. However hopefully they will study some film and get reacquainted with things like hitting the cut off man. The Phillies also got called for another balk, the second in like 10 days!

 

 

Phillies had 2 costly errors in this game and a past ball /wild pitch that led to a gimme run …………………………

 

 

Durbin finally had a positive outing. Although Contreras hit a speed bump.  And all of the sudden Madson is all calm and collected in the 9th? Funny because I have made it clear he would never see the mound in the 9th after his obvious failures in the last couple seasons. Suddenly it seems he has come to grips with it. Kudos to Charlie for keeping sending him out there. SIDE NOTE: Lidge was unavailable because he allegedly tweaked his elbow that he had surgery on. He claims it something that has happened before and it is not serious. Charlie echoed his comments. So hopefully this isn’t a stay positive rhetoric situation. We’ll find out soon enough.

 

GROSS INCOME IS BACK > OFFENSE:

 

• 13 Hits and 3 Walks

• A non efficient 3 for 8 with men in scoring position

• Victorino leads off going 2 for 5 with a solo HR and scoring twice

• Polanco has the go ahead/game winning RBI and went 3 for 5! He also scored a run

• Utley had a walk

• Howard hit his 27th HR of the year and went 2 for with the HR, a double and a walk. He scored 3 times!

• Rollins was 2 for 3 in the 5th spot and had 2 RBI’s! He scored a run

• Ibanez woke up out of his Burrell imitation and went a sizzling 3 for 5 with a triple and 3 RBI’s. He too scored a run

• Chooch had a double and a walk

• Rollins stole his 17th base of the year

• Victorino stole his 30th and it was huge as he subsequently scored the winning run as a result of that steal and Polanco’s single to right!

 

BAD NEWS: Along with Lidge’s elbow Dom Brown was scratched because of a quad concern. I don’t want to hear that now.