Phillies Sweep Reds With 6-4 Victory

I usually attempt (mostly unsuccessfully) to come up with something witty to say at the beginning of these recaps.  If I fail, Justin denies me my weekly food ration and I have to kill and eat vermin in an attempt to stave off starvation.

There aren’t too many jokes I can make about how good the Phillies are.  They won their eighty seventh game this afternoon with their 10-1 rookie starter on the hill.  They have three pitchers in the conversation for the Cy Young award and their offense has been more than solid since the acquisition of Hunter Pence.  They are really good.  They just held the top offense in the league at bay during a four game sweeep.  Like I said, really good.

In a game earlier this month Vance Worley struck out Carlos Beltran on what Beltran deemed a close pitch.  Worley told him to “sit the fuck down.”  Worley has been sitting all sorts of people the fuck down this season.  With today’s win the unheralded rookie improved to 10-1 and the Phillies have won his last 12 starts.  He was not lights out today, but he was certainly good enough to win.  He went six innings allowing eight hits and four runs while striking out seven batters.  The Phillies are really good and their back up number five starter is 10-1 with an ERA under 3.00.  They are really good.

The offense backed Worley to the tune of six runs on twelve hits.  Ryan Howard reached the 30 home run 100 RBI plateau for the sixth straight season as the offense continued to have success against Red’s right hander Mike Leake.  Howard even made a throw to second base to start a double play proving that he is not incapable of making that play.  Wilson Valdez, Shane Victorino and Howard all collected two hits and Michael Martinez hit a two run home run.  As stated previously, they are a really good team.

Before the season, Antonio Bastardo was the second left hander in the bullpen and little was expected of the second year pitcher.  He has been fantastic.  This afternoon, he entered the game after Brad Lidge walked Edgar Renteria in the bottom of the seven.  He forced last year’s National League MVP Joey Votto to ground into an inning ending double play.  In the eighth inning, he struck out the side.  After today’s outing he lowered his ERA to 1.38 and has struck out sixty five batters in 52 1/3 innings.  He is a bad ass.  6-4 win for the Phillies today.

Roy Oswalt goes for the Phils tomorrow hoping to pitch better than he did last time he faced the Marlins.  The fish counter with some guy named Brad Hand.