7/9/13
The Phillies are on a pivotal ten game homestand. They won
two out of three games against the first place Atlanta Braves. Now the Phillies
get to host the Nationals for four games. It would be ideal for the Phillies to
sweep the Nationals, but we will see what this Phillies team can do in this
must-win series. The first game of this series started with an ugly pitching
matchup. John Lannan started for the Phillies while Dan Haren (fresh off the
15-Day disabled list), got the nod for the Nationals. The Nationals acquired a
batter from the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs traded Scott Hairston (Notorious Phillie
killer) to the Nationals for a Minor League prospect. Hairston will be a right
handed bat off the bench. The Nationals sent Tyler Moore to the minors so they
can make room for Hairston to be on the Major League roster. The Phillies had
some devastating news last night in which Ryan Howard was going to be out six
to eight weeks due to a torn meniscus. The latest Howard would be able to
return is in September. For now, Darin Ruf is the new starting first baseman as
he got the call up from Triple A. Who’s going to step up in Ryan Howard’s
absence? Who will pitch the better game?
It was surprising to see that this was a low scoring game.
Especially since two terrible pitchers were pitching last night. Domonic Brown
started the scoring in the first inning for the Phillies as he hit a line shot
that hit Haren in the leg. The ball rolled past him and allowed Ben Revere to
score to make it a 1-0 game. Ruf drew an RBI walk to make it a 2-0 game. Jimmy
Rollins made this a 3-0 game in the sixth inning when he hit a line drive into
right field. That made a tumbling Revere score from second. Things got
interesting in the ninth inning when Jonathan Papelbon allowed two runners to
reach base. Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche both hit sacrifice flies to score the
only two runs the Nationals scored in the game. The game was over on a Chad
Tracy pop up and the Phillies won the first of this four game series 3-2.
What’s there to say about Lannan? This guy pitched one of
his best games of the season. He pitched eight strong innings, allowed four
hits, walked two, and struck out four batters. The best thing about Lannan was
that his changeup was effective, threw strikes, and kept the ball down in the
strike zone. Papelbon pitched an erratic ninth inning. In the end, he got the
job done.
Haren was terrible last night. Although he didn’t allow many
runs, the Phillies could have easily knocked him around if they had better
situational hitting. Haren pitched five grinding innings. He allowed seven
hits, three walks, and struck out seven batters. Fernando Abad pitched the
sixth inning and gave up what now seems to be a costly third run. Ross
Ohlendorf and his funky looking windup pitched scoreless seventh and eighth
innings.
Overall, the Phillies have been winning games at an easier
rate. They have been scoring more runs and have been getting good games from
their starting pitching. The bullpen has been a concern all season, which is
why I think Lannan pitched eight innings. I was calling for Lannan to be lifted
from the game after the sixth inning due to throwing a lot of pitches. I kept
thinking that the Nationals were going to have one big inning against Lannan.
This was in part of what happened in his last start against the Pittsburgh
Pirates when he allowed four runs in the fifth inning. However, the only
difference is that the Pirates made Lannan grind his way through five innings
whereas in this game, Lannan was cruising along in his eight innings of work. Both
the Phillies and the Nationals had the same kind of offense last night. Nine
out of the ten hits the Phillies had were singles. Five out of six hits for the
Nationals were singles. The Phillies should have had at least five runs through
the third inning because Haren was pitching that bad. They had the bases loaded
in the first inning and had to muster their way to score two runs. Any good
team would have had five runs in this situation. The Phillies ran into their
old habits by swinging too early in the count like they did in the third inning
when they had a chance to score a run.
Is the Phillies
offense back? Sound off and stay tuned tonight as Cole Hamels takes the mound
for the Phillies. Rookie Taylor Jordan will start for the Nationals.
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