Romp and Unforseen Circumstances
Sidebar: With Brian Michael away traveling Spain and being buried in school work yours truly will be running the show for the next two weeks. I intend to maintain the quality and integrity that you, our reader, expect when you visit our site. Thank You.
6 runs. 4 hits. 2 misplays in the field. 2 hit batsmen. 1 throwing error. 1 balk.
The bottom of the first inning tonight was one of the strangest innings of baseball I have seen in a while.Though you can point out many reasons why the Mets had the hammer dropped on them tonight , the major factor in today’s game was the ineffectiveness of Pedro Martinez.
From the get go any baseball fan with knowledge of Perdo’s ability had to know that something was up. Even this late in his career Pedro can still bring the heat. Tonight, Pedro Martinez looked more like Jamie Moyer throwing an array of off speed and breaking pitches. He registered 4 fastballs in the first inning. Two of them for strikes and two hitting Aaron Rowand and Chris Coste.
Reports cite a calf strain for his poor pitching performance. He was feeling the pain during warm ups. and further aggravated the injury while attempting to make a play on a slow dribbler past the mound hit by Jimmy Rollins, resulting in an infield single. From there, the wheels came off for Pedro tonight. The Mets are keeping quiet with details on the injury only declaring he is "day to day" and not setting a timetable for his next start.
On the flip side, Cole Hamels pitched a really great game. The Phils 6 run 1st deflated the Mets hopes of winning while King Cole’s 4 hit gem took the hearts from their chests. I think its safe to say that Cole Hamels is the best pitcher on this team. His continuing dominance of National League hitters will be a huge factor on if the Phillies can make a legitimate run at the Wild Card.
After the game, Tom Gordon said on Comcast SportsNet that he has been experiencing shoulder inflammation for some time while still continuing to pitch. We can assume that him blowing a save and giving up a lead over the weekend can be attributed to this unknown shoulder injury.
In the midst of a half hearted playoff race can Charlie Manuel justify putting a hurt closer on the mound against the Reds this weekend?
If the Phils happen to find themselves in the ninth inning during a save opportunity I’d imagine they call on Madson to slam the door. I really don’t want to find out though. The way they have been hitting the ball the Phils may not need a 9th inning fill-in while Gordon is day to day.
Tomarrow, I’ll be mapping out the Phillies wild ride to make it to the post season, like i promised.
