Weekend Series Update: Philadelphia Phillies at Washington Nationals

Where do I begin. Its very hard to gauge a team based on their performance against the Nats.  The Phillies could have blown that game WIDE open. On the night, the Phillies had twenty, yes TWENTY, runners in scoring position and only managed to get 8 home. Blanton struggled with command again walking 6 over five innings. Which further proves my point that the umpires have a league wide squeeze on the strike zone this year. I really can't put that much blame on Lidge for blowing the save Friday nights debacle of a game. The first hit barely made it passed the pitchers mound and the one Dunn hit, Feliz did the right thing at getting the lead runner. Yeah Utley through a slider to Ruiz and could have had Dunn out to end the ball game, but oh well. I was actually really looking forward to seeing Happ pitch Saturday night, but it obviously wasn't meant to be. I really do feel for Manny Acta. Does he have anyone in the pen with an ERA under 4? It seems like either the pitching or the defense or a combination of both let him down all weekend long.

Myers was outstanding in game one of the double. Myers struck out eight and walked two over seven innings. Myers' only two runs of the game were, of course, result of the long ball. However he only gave up 3 hits total. So it looks like Myers is starting to come around. Hopefully we will see that against the rest of the league and not just the Nats. The offensive player of the game had to be Raul (read rah-ooooooool) Ibanez. Ibanez went 3 for 5 with two Ibombezs. He scored three times personally and knocked in a total of four.

Due to Fridays two inning outing Happ's chance to start the night cap Saturday went by the wayside. Instead rookie Andrew Carpenter, who is actually responsible for my youngest's middle name, got the nod. While not a strong outing, Carpenters was good enough. Especially for a first start. Carpenter gave up 5 runs over 4.1 innings. He walked three, but struckout four. How is that good enough you ask? Answer in a minute. Condrey continued to prove he is a valuable asset to this bullpen by bailing out Carpenter for the last two outs of the inning. In the top of the sixth, Ron Villone proceed to load the bases via a hit and two walks. With the bases loaded and nobody out, the baseball gods decided they had seen enough of this. Instead of the Phillies flooding the base path, the clouds opened up and flooded the infield. The fact the fans had to jump onto the field to help pull the tarp, which was stuck, not the fault of the Washington ground crew, probably didn't help this game being washed out. In a regular, nine inning game Carpenter would not have qualified for the win. He did qualifiy for the win the rain shortened one. Two for two in the double header.

Sunday, which may be the pre-cursor to judgement day, brought Chan Ho Park. The Nationals did not want to suffer a four game sweep at the hands of the Phillies and came out guns blazing. They knocked Park out of the park in the second inning, scoring five runs on four walks and five hits. I never thought I'd say it, but thank god for Jack Taschner. Two and two-thirds of an inning pitched and not a single run plated. He even struck out two. He even brought his ERA down to a respectable 3.86.  After game two, Carpenter was optioned back to Lehigh Valley to stay in the rotation there. Sergio Escolona got the call for the spot in the bullpen. Good move Phillies not only did he get his first career strikeout, he was the lucky recipient of a late inning blunder by the Nats that granted him the win. You can't put the sole blame on that loss on Hernandez, the secondbaseman covering first on the sac bunt. I also put blame on Colome and Adam Dunn. Colome should have never thought about touching the ball. Zimmerman was all over it. Dunn was in right chasing butterflies, instead of backing up first base like he should have been doing. So yeah Hernandez missed it, but the pitcher shouldn't have thrown it and the right fielder should have been backing him up.

I think the most interesting point of note is Jimmy Rollins. Over the last week, he is hitting exactly .300 with a double, a triple, and a homer. His is knocking in runs and scoring runs. You can tell the confidence is coming back as he is pushing pitchers to keep him close to the bag.

The last point of interest is that the Phillies DFA'd Miguel Cairo Friday night to make room for Carpenter and Escolona. With both back in the minors, the Phillies have Monday's off day to determine who to slide into that 25th man spot.