Why Can’t Ruben Acquire Ryan Zimmerman?

What happened last night is something that we as Phillies fans are not accustomed to.  Ryan Madson blew his second save of the season after entering the ninth inning with a 4-2 lead.  Kyle Kendrick started the game after a two hour and twenty two minute rain delay rendered scheduled starter Roy Oswalt unavailable.  When Kyle does not ruin everything, the Phillies usually win games.  A Ryan Zimmerman grand slam ended any possibility of a victory and handed the Phillies their second ninth inning loss this week.  We are not used to this.

The Phillies had a seven hit third inning versus starter Livan Hernandez, but managed little else outside of their stellar third inning.  Because he only throws 80 MPH and the Nationals probably don’t care if his arm falls off, Hernandez came out after the rain delay and threw 3 1/3 more innings.  He kept himself warmed up by eating an entire roast pig.

As stated previously, Kendrick did not ruin everything.  In a spot start he managed to throw six innings of two run baseball.  He certainly pitched well enough to win the game.  Ryan Madson, on the other hand, certainly pitched bad enough to blow a two run lead and lose the game.  He has been really good this season and this seemed more of a statistical anomaly than anything else.  The hardest hit ball was Zimmerman’s home run, all the other hits in the inning were not struck well.

Jayson Werth has not had a good year.  His batting average has hovered in the low .200’s and his power numbers are considerably down.  He can still work a pitcher.  He fell behind Madson 0-2 to start the ninth, worked the count full and managed to bloop a single to left field.  Danny Espinosa blooped a single to center field and Jonny Gomes singled to make the score 4-3.  Wilson Ramos sacrificed the runners over and Ian Desmond singled to score Espinosa.  Madson intentionally walked Jesus Flores, stuck out Rick Ankiel and ultimately allowed the grand slam to Zimmerman.  That is a ton of stuff that needed to go right for the Nationals to win the game.  Only Zimmerman is a .300 hitter and many of the participants were batting in the low .200’s.  Hard to believe.

Phils come back tomorrow with Roy Oswalt likely to exact his revenge on the Nationals.  John Lannan goes for the Nats.