Oswalt Shuts Down Nationals
By Editorial Staff
It is really easy to forget how good Roy Oswalt is at throwing a baseball. Robbed of his velocity by a back injury, Oswalt still managed to be reasonably effective, but he was not as dominant as he has been in the past. In the first inning tonight, Oswalt’s fastball reached 94 MPH.
There may be some question as to the veracity of the speed gun in National’s park, but Oswalt’s fastball certainly passed the eye test. He also struck out nine batters, a season and high in a Phillies uniform. Eight innings, nine strikeouts and NO RUNS ALLOWED. Little Roy looked like little Roy.
John Mayberry Jr. is certainly doing his best to make Raul Ibanez obsolete. Charlie Manual went with Mayberry tonight even though Raul has fantastic numbers against John Lannan. Mayberry rewarded Manual by going 2-4 and making a shutout saving throw to nail Ryan Zimmerman at the plate in the bottom of the forth inning. There is no chance in hell that Raul could have ever made that throw. Ever. Mayberry has turned himself into a serviceable major league baseball player.
John Lannan fell to 1-12 against the Phillies in his career. He allowed another two unearned runs as a botched pickoff catch from Ian Desmond preceded a Wilson Valdez two run triple. It almost looks like the Nationals don’t try when Lannan is facing the Phillies. I wonder if he threw a little temper tantrum after this one. One can only hope.
Ryan Zimmerman is really fucking good.
The Phillies took like one 5-0 and recorded their sixteenth shutout of the year.
Wang versus Halladay tomorrow afternoon as the Phillies go for another series win.
Phils go for another series win