Phillies Nation

I would say the Sox have been getting better. They have been playing 6-4 baseball in the last 10, against some very good teams. One of those loses was a walk off at Yankee Stadium. Its amazing what Steroids (A-Roid) and alittle league ball park will do for a team (Thames home run). Take that one back, and its 7-3. They were playing piss poor baseball, but have been improving. The Phillies on the other hand seem to have been on a slump the last few days. Maybe today was the end of that slump, maybe it was the Phillies avoiding a sweep. Don’t overlook the Sox because they are 1 game over .500, especially considering the teams they have played alot against (The Rays which appear unstoppable and the Yankmees). While I would love to say the Phillies will take the series, I would tend to doubt it with a team whos offense has finally kicked in, true their pitchers have not been good overall, but they are VERY capable of shutting teams down. Nos if the Phillies can tee off on the Sox, that could lead to another tear and leave the rest of the NL east in the dust. Or maybe further in the dust.

Changing the discussion back to today’s game, I know Blanton battled in the 7th and was in a bases loaded jam, but I wonder how he feels when he has a low pitch count(aroumd 80y and he is lifted for Bastardo while just two games ago Halladay is allowed to throw 130+ pitches..

NC Jason: I think they’re just taking it easy with Heavy B because he’s coming off that injury… by mid-June, Charlie will let him pitch 100+ for sure.

That being said, I hope we take it a bit easier with Halladay…

Brooks has a good point, however the Phillies seem to have a knack for driving up low ERA’s (Santana and Plfrey come to mind) yet miraculously lower bad ERA’s. LOL. Sometimes they just flat out play to the level of their competition.

Brooks, were you named for Brooks Robinson, by any chance?

Considering Francona did NOTHING when he was the Manager of the Phillies by chance Brooks? LOL

bigbobster, it also shows just how inept the Reds Bullpen is, and has been for most of the season, excluding the 10 game hot streak they were on. It proved nothing else.

The Phil’s pitching is going to have to handle Dustin Pedroia and our old friend, J.D. Drew, if they want to win this series. These two players have a recent history of just “killing” the Phils at the plate and both seem to hit well against Hamels. The Phils also have to contend with Youkilis and Beltre, who are both batting over .300. Unfortunate that Boston has really started to play better recently.

Epstein’s idea of building around defense and pitching is a good one no matter what division you’re in. The Sox so far just haven’t gotten the pitching performances they expected. Also, Francona didn’t do anything in Philadelphia because the front office never got him any talent to work with. Had he been kept around he’d have done better.

Right now, it seems that Blanton can’t even BUY a win. He had some bad luck by getting injured, and he’s still having bad luck since his return. Of course, Halladay and Moyer had bad luck the two games previous. Let’s hope that doesn’t continue! I’m glad Bastardo didn’t pitch to any more batters, even though he probably would have gotten them out. Had he finished the eighth, HE would have been the winning pitcher, and that’s just totally unfair.

George you’re kidding right?? Go check out a Redsox blog once in awhile. Redsox fans hate Terry’s decision making on a day to day basis. Like Charlie, he’s a great manager of lockerooms and egos. Which is very important. But that only takes you so far. Like Charlie, it’s easy to manage and be successful when u have a boat load of Grade A talent around you to go along with a front office that his deep pockets. Except the Mets. Building a team around pitching and defense is a good idea if it were the truth. The truth is the Sox pitching overall has no imaginary or tangible edge over the Rays or Yankees. And their defense so far this season has been a joke. The Redsox sold the “pitching/defense” to bandwagon Sox fans. Tru Redsox fans that this is just bs. Long way to go, but the Redsox may really turn into semi-sellers come July… The Rays are much better and the Yankees are too stacked with deeper pockets.