Howard Atones for Defensive Liability By Carrying Offense

On a night when Halladay was not at his best, you would expect playing god awful defense could cost a team the game.  This would be true is said poor defense did not coincide with the offender smashing the living crap out of the ball.  It also does not hurt when Jason Hammel is on the other mound doing his best Oliver Perez imitation.

Roy Halladay was human today.  Was is the thin air?  Maybe he should have consulted Kyle Kendrick, or maybe he was nervous because he is from the area.  Picture Roy Halladay being nervous.  I am not sure if it is possible.  Roy went seven innings (even at his worst he still throws innings) allowed four earned runs, eight hits and struck out seven.  He even walked a guy.  This type of performance makes me hate Coors field.  I think it says something about the pitcher when not throwing well drives one to blame the location in lieu of the performer.  Go screw Colorado and I hope Dinger ends up dead in a vat of Coors Extra Gold.

Ryan Howard made an atrocious fielding play in the bottom of the first inning.  He was awarded two errors for his incompetence and let Halladay know that he would atone for his transgressions.  He did.  Howard drove in four runs and hit his first home run off of a left hander this season.  Howard attributed the addition of Hunter Pence to the increase in the number of fastballs he is seeing.  While it is debatable as to the frequency of hittable pitches the big man is getting, perhaps the notion that he THINKS he is getting a smaller percentage of crappy breaking balls is more important than anything.  It is commonly acknowledged that baseball can be a colossal mind fuck.  Howard is raking and if he thinks that it is because of Hunter Pence then so be it.

Pence has recorded a hit in every game since he was acquired.  He plated the first run of the game with a sac fly and added a single in the sixth inning.  I think that Philadelphia may be in love.

Brad Lidge used to close games.  He probably shouldn’t do it anymore, but because Ryan Madson was in the process of helping his wife have a baby, we were treated to an appearance at the end of the game from the Lidger.  1-2-3 inning for the 100th save of his Phillies career to preserve the 8-6 victory and the series sweep.  Unfortunately, he won’t eclipse the team record tenaciously held by Jose Mesa.  Jose Mesa everyone.

The Phillies travel to San Francisco tomorrow to take on the Giants.  Since the Giants snatched 2 of 3 in their series in Philadelphia the notoriously patient Philadelphia fan-base waited silently for another crack at the world champs.  Cliff Lee versus Madison Bumgarner.