Halladay Conquers Heat, Bests Padres in Process

There was a whole bunch of attention paid to the fact that Roy Halladay looked like he was going to die during his last start.  There has also been a fair amount of attention paid to the fact that the country has been crippled by a crushing heat wave.  There was a bit of a reprieve as today’s game time temperature of 94 degrees was considerably lower than the astronomically high temperatures of the last few days.

Halladay cared not for the heat and reminded us that he is entirely too bad ass to let something like almost getting killed hinder his ability to be good at throwing pitches.  Roy gave up a first inning run and gave up two more (one earned) in the fourth inning.  The most impressive about Halladay tonight was the fact that he went eight innings.  He was nearing 100 pitches in the top of the sixth inning, but he decided that he was going to come out of the game when he was good and God damn ready, throwing two more innings, using an ridiculously low amount of pitches.  In all, Roy allowed eight hits, two earned runs and struck out eight.  Every time he pitches I am floored by the fact that he pitches for the Phillies.  With the win today, Halladay joins Hamels for the team lead in victories.  Go to hell Robert Person.

Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley begun to swing the bats well and have catalyzed the Phillies offense.  Today, both players were held hitless, but Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez both went 2-4 pacing the offense today.  Both of Howard’s hits today and his home run yesterday were all of the opposite field variety.  It is absolutely amazing how much of a difference this type of approach can make for Howard.  Apparently Charlie Manual has been working with him to adjust his approach to hit the ball to the opposite field.  Ibanez just missed a two run home run in the bottom of the seventh when Chris Denorfia picked the ball as it was on its way into the bullpen.  I often wonder how mad the robbed party is in this type of circumstance.  Raul is too nice to wish ill upon Denorfia, I on the other hand would not be as kind.  Regardless the Phillies took the game 5-3.

The Phillies look to take their second four game series from the Padres with Cliff Lee taking on world’s ugliest man contestant Aaron Harang.