Phillies Fail to Beat Padres Every Single Time They Play Them

Cliff Lee has been great in Philadelphia and the Phillies haven’t lost to the San Diego Padres in what seems like forever (ten games to be exact).  Aaron Harang is an odd looking man with bad numbers against Ryan Howard and Chase Utley.  How the hell ldid Harang finish fourth in the Cy Young voting in 2007?

There is no possible way that I would have ever guessed that he finished anywhere near this high in the voting, but, there he is, two spots ahead of Cole Hamels.  When you start to delve into baseball statistics deeply, it can undeniably  make you bat shit insane which probably goes a long way to explain this blog.

Cliff Lee got hit around by a team that can not hit the ball.  Chris Denorfia even stole home off of him.  Lee is sort of a strange case.  When he is good, he looks like the best pitcher in baseball and when he is bad, he looks like Kyle Kendrick.  When Roy Halladay is bad, he still manages to keep the team in the game.  Lee had his second shortest outing of the season laboring through four innings, allowing five runs and surrendering ten hits.  After the offense gave Cliff a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, he allowed four runs in the top of the second and departed after allowing another run in the fourth.  Overall this was a forgettable day for the ace left hander and hopefully today’s rough outing will turn him back into a bad ass for a little while.

There was some good stuff that happened in today’s game.  Does everyone remember Brad Lidge?  He threw a scoreless inning of relief this afternoon and even reached 90 MPH on the radar gun.  The bullpen collectively was a strong point with Andrew Carpenter and Michael Stutes each throwing two innings of scoreless relief in addition to Lidge’s perfect inning. Shane Victorino pushed his average back up over .300 with a 3-4 day at the plate, Raul Ibanez stayed hot by going 2-4, Ryan Howard go another hit to the opposite field and Domonic Brown hit his first career triple.

Go screw Aaron Harang.  The Phillies mounted a come back, but fell 5-4.

Next up for the Phils, the Giants come to town.  Tim Lincecum takes on Vance Worley.