Well, its safe to say, I'm no longer content talking about how Lidge's stuff looked good even though he blew the save. He looked horrible last night and, as a result, the Phils are losers of two straight.
What weird game. The nationals owned the first and ninth, the Phils the innings in between. Blanton was his typical crappy self last night, although he did settle in somewhat after allowing 3 first inning runs. His final line, 4 earned, 6 innings, 9 hits, could have been a lot worse after that first inning but he held it together afterwards. Then came Lidge. I sometimes wonder why teams are willing to sacrifice wins for ego. Brad has had pretty good stuff all year even though he's continued to get hit. Not last night. His control was erractic, he walked light hitting Adam Kennedy, and before allowing the winning home run to Ryan Zimmerman, he grooved one down the middle that Zim should have put in the seats before that. This was only Lidge's first loss of the season, but his 4th blown save. His ERA rises to 5.57 and its looking like time to give the ball in the 9th to the hot arm. If Contreras gets his stuff back together, maybe he's an option. We already know Madson can't close.
At the plate, Raul Ibanez continues to show a little bit of power off as he hit his 10th home run of the year and upping his RBI total to 51. However, the man who continues to fly under the radar is Carlos Ruiz. Chooch had a great night, going 3 for 5 with a home run (3rd) and 2 RBI (19th and 20th). His batting average now sits at .288, a great number for a guy who's supposed to be our number 8 hitter. Not be overlooked either is his OBP, .394, which is second on the team to Utley.
This series has not gone great. I expected better of this team riding a new ace into town against a team already out of it that just traded their closer and put their pitching phenom on the DL. The Phils now sit 3.5 games back of the division and the wild card and will look to salvage a game today at 1:35 as Cole takes on John Lannan.
Really Cleveland? You think acting this way is going to MAKE players want to come to Cleveland:
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