5/4/13
It was a cold night in Philadelphia
and so were the Phillies bats. I was at this game and toughed out the cold. The
Phillies won the first two games of this series by using the long ball. Cole Hamels
was on the mound for the Phillies as Jose Fernandez started for the Marlins.
Fernandez is a top young stud for the Marlins and stifled the Phillies the last
time they saw him. Hamels has had a weird start to the season. He’s pitched
well in most of his starts, but his offense has given him no run support. The
Marlins had a smaller bench last night because Donovan Solano was hurt, and
Austin Kearns was on the bereavement list. Chris Valaika replaced Solano and
batted leadoff. Matt Diaz replaced Juan Pierre in the starting lineup last
night to have one more right handed bat in the lineup. With Solano out of the
lineup, that meant Placido Polanco went back to his familiar spot in the
batting order and hit second.
I don’t have a lot to say about the scoring. The Marlins put
up two solo homeruns. Marcell Ozuna and Chris Valaika both hit their first
major league homeruns. That was your ballgame.
Even though Cole Hamels allowed those two solo homeruns, he
had a solid game. His pitch count was up at the early part of the game, but
settled down in the middle innings. He cruised through eight innings, allowed
four hits, and struck out six batters. The bullpen of Phillippe Aumont and
Jeremy Horst finished the ninth at ease.
Jose Fernandez made the Phillies hitters perplexed yet
again. He threw a lot of strikes and allowed only one hit through seven innings
of work. He also struck out nine batters. The Phillies could not catch up to
Fernandez’s 97 mile per hour fastball and try to figure out his changeup and
curve ball. He could have pitched the whole game if he wanted to, but Mike
Redmond had different ideas. He decided to put Michael Dunn in the eighth
inning and have Steve Cishek finish the game in the ninth and record his fourth
save of the season. The Marlins pitchers only allowed three total baserunners
for the Phillies. That is pathetic.
Overall, the Phillies flat out sucked last night. Three
baserunners in a game is unacceptable for the type of talent they have in their
lineup. I really didn’t like how Ryan Howard swung at the changeups, but looked
at the fastballs like they were a foreign pitch. I also didn’t like how the
Phillies swung early in the count. They have to get better at taking pitches
and accepting that it’s ok to take a walk because a walk is better than an out
of any kind. How do you describe the 5-14 record the Phillies have when talented
pitchers like Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Hamels represent the Phillies? This
kind of pathetic offense that the Phillies display is discouraging and explains
why the Phillies haven’t won more games. I don’t care if the Miami Marlins are
a baseball team, they look like the New Orleans Zephyrs (the Marlins Triple-A
team). I hope some time in the not so distant future that the offense will
support Hamels and he will keep pitching like the dominant pitcher he has shown
recently.
Is this a game you
just throw away and focus on the positives in the first two games of this
series? Sound off and stay tuned until next time…
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