Victorino Dethrones Felix, Comes Up a Single Shy of the Cycle

The last member of the Philadelphia Phillies to hit for the cycle was David Bell.  It seems a little funny that the feat was accomplished by a crappy, heavy footed third baseman with no power.  There have been a bunch of players recently with a power/speed combination.

You would assume that someone like Jayson Werth, Shane Victorino, Jimmy Rollins, or maybe even Bobby Abreu would have hit for the cycle so we could repress David Bell further into our baseball subconscious.  Shane got close today, but close does not erase David Bell from the record books.  He is laughing somewhere….sitting on a pile of money that the Phillies gave him for essentially no reason.

Felix Hernandez is nicknamed “King” Felix.  After winning last year’s Cy Young and coming in as the runner up in 2009, the big right hander has established himself as a top starting pitcher in baseball making the nickname king apt.  He throws a mid nineties fastball with really nasty breaking pitches.  The guy is no joke.

The Phils countered with rookie right hander Vance Worley.  This matchup would traditionally be considered a mis match.  The great leveler in this circumstance is the Mariners complete lack of offense.  Because of thier offensive liability, Hernandez won last year’s Cy Young with the fewest amount of wins for anyone to win the award.  This year, their bats are slightly better, but they are still not considered potent.  Worley was solid in his five innings of work, only allowing a run on a home run from Mariners rookie Dustin Ackley.  He left the game with the score tied, thus not earning a decision, but he probably pitched well enough to earn a vicotry.

Hernandez was actually human today.  He gave up a first inning run on a Ryan Howard sac fly and gave up two more in the seventh on an opposite field double by Shane Victorino.  This is another in the pantheon of players that, as east coast fans, we do not see a great deal of.  I would rather see him pitch against the Mets.  Even though the Phillies handed Hernandez the loss, you can see that there is a very real possibility that he could shut a baseball team down at any moment.

Victorino stayed hot as evidenced by his aforemented failed attempt to purge David Bell from the record books.  Howard went 2-4 with an RBI and Jimmy Rollins was 3-4.

The Phillies send Cole Hamels to the mound tomorrow in search of his tenth win and will be opposed by fellow left hander Jason Vargas.