Joe Blanton’s Early Woes as Phillies’ Fifth Starter: Weighing in on “Heavy B”

For Joe Blanton, life is pretty good. He makes a great salary and has four of the best active pitchers in the game lockering next to him, surely offering priceless advice to help enhance his craft. He’s trimmer, too—somewhat a shell of his former self, at least physically.

Then, you realize that Blanton, who has everything else going right, can’t hold a seven-run lead against the Mets in his first outing or keep the the Nationals from smacking the ball all over their empty ballpark during his last start.

And it isn’t just bad luck or timely hits: opposing batters are hitting .378 against him. In both outings, all started OK, but the deeper it got into the game, the more the opposition’s score changed.

Blanton blamed his mechanics, but pitching coach Rich Dubee wasn’t so sure that was the issue. In any case, unimpressive would be an understatement.

Many fans and analysts, along with handfuls of bloggers, are quick to point out that the heavy version of Joe Blanton, or “Heavy B,” might have had the stamina to get through the sixth or seventh inning of contests, instead of being yanked earlier in games with a ballooning ERA.

Now, he’s shed some weight, and his struggles thus far in 2011 are proof? Nope, ladies and gents, this is not the case.

Let me ‘Hardy Boys’ this mystery for you: Blanton is just plain bad in April.

Let’s look at Blanton’s career splits, where April is highlighted below. With a little math, you’ll see he averages just 6.15 innings/game in April, which drops to just 5.97 inn/game in May, and both of these come with a 1.44 WHIP, easily worse than any other month of adequate sample size.

In the summer, however, Joe seems to find his rhythm: he posts a serviceable ERA, very good WHIP, and pretty low BAA in June.

July seems to show a slight trend of statistical relapse, easily attributed to the All-Star break, and then Blanton historically has his best month in August, matching June’s average productivity in WHIP and BAA while improving ERA to an extremely effective 2.77. Also telling is his average innings per start, which rise to 6.43 over summer’s three-month span.

These numbers typify the string of quality starts Joe will put together in August, going six or seven innings giving up two runs. It’s what the people want as fans, but it’s fleeting.

By September, though you wouldn’t know it from his win-loss record, it seems you can expect Blanton to regress once again and his season to come full circle.

In 2005, Blanton had numbers that could have had him confused with an ace or second starter of some of the league’s bottom-dwellers.

It was a glimspe into nothing, it seems, and just as his mid-rotation abilities and potential led to a nice payday, his numerous mediocre performances leave many wanting more out out of the right-hander.

All that you as a Phillies fan need to know, and expect, is that if healthy, Joe will contribute nicely in the heat of Summer for this team as our fifth starter.

Whether he’s capable of putting together a good start in September or October shouldn’t matter, because if all goes according to plan, Blanton will be relegated to Powerade duties when the postseason rolls around.

 

*This article was originally published at 7thandPattison.com

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Philadelphia Phillies: Curt Schilling and the 10 Worst Trades in Team History

Pat Gillick orchestrated the 2008 Phillies to perfection. His key trades for guys like Joe Blanton, Jamie Moyer, Brad Lidge and Scott Eyre lead to the fulfillment of the ultimate goal.

Since then, his successor Ruben Amaro has made some solid trades to put the Phillies where they are today.

But things haven’t always been in the Phillies favor. Here is a list of the worst trades in team history.

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Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay and the Top 6 Phillies of the Week: Who’s No. 1?

In this past week in Phillies baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies won three of their five games, bringing their NL East-leading record to 9-4.

The week (defined for our purposes as Monday through Sunday) concluded with a hard-earned 3-2 win over the visiting Florida Marlins, who would have tied the Phils for first place with a win.

The men in red pinstripes split the rain-abbreviated, two-game set, and have yet to drop a series this young season.

As it played out, the Phillies—whose offense had been surprisingly potent the first nine games of the season—only tallied 17 total runs in the five games. On the bright side, they received four well-pitched games from their five-man rotation (who each started one game, starting with an ineffective Joe Blanton).

In such a pitching-dominated week, who are the leading candidates for my third Top Phillie of the Week Award?

A panel of alternate personalities, utilizing the finest technology and expertise imaginable, has identified six somewhat worthy candidates this time around. Interestingly, none of my panelists identified the previous two winners—Ryan Howard and Shane Victorino—as one of the six.

Let’s hope that there’s no jinx at work here.

So, who were the ones who made the cut and boosted their chances for the Top Phillie of the Year Award to be announced in October?

(Note to potential sponsors: Contact me via this site with your cash and/or proposals.)

Let’s get right to the Sizzling Six.

6) Cole Hamels—The best No. 4 starter in baseball—the King of Diamonds if you prefer—pitched very well earlier today in a mid-April version of a big game.

Hamels worked seven innings, yielding two earned runs on seven hits. He fanned seven while walking two. Unfortunately for Cole, the Phils did not score their third run ’til the bottom of the eighth.

5) Ryan Madson—The superb master of the eight inning made three appearances this week, and excelled in each. Madson notched his first win of the season today, and for the week, he gave up only one hit and no walks in three innings. His ERA remains at 0.00, and his WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) is at a silly 0.40.

4) Carlos Ruiz—Chooch only batted 4-18 this week (.222), but that does not begin to tell the story.

One of Ruiz’s hits was a solo homer in the top of the sixth on Thursday, to break up Washington Nationals’ starter Jordan Zimmerman’s perfect game, and put up the first run for Cliff Lee—the only breathing room he would need.

On Sunday, Ruiz drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eight. He also made a terrific play on a surprise bunt, and a great block of a pitch in the dirt in the top of the ninth, preserving the one-run victory.

3) Placido Polanco—Polly does not grab headlines; he just continues to collect hits and play the game the right way.

Polly hit for .429 for the week (9-21) to boost his season’s average to .373. He hit safely in all five contests, with a homer (the first run in Sunday’s game), six runs scored and four RBI.

2) Roy Halladay—One runs out of superlatives for Doc, who added another chapter to his Philadelphia legend with his 3-2 complete game victory at Washington.

Doc scattered six hits in his complete game performance, yielding two runs and two walks, while striking out nine. The other half of the story?

The man who has more complete games (career) than any other hurler in baseball, showed his toughness one more time. When skipper Charlie Manuel came to the mound with the Phils hanging onto a 3-1 lead with two runners on and one out, Doc waved him off simply saying, “I’ve got ‘em. I’ve got ‘em.”

Well, he got ‘em all right, ending his gutsy performance by striking out two batters looking. For an account of his feat, see more here.

 

It was swift, no-nonsense and dominant. In a word, iconic. Typical Doc.

1) Cliff Lee—It would take an almost perfect performance to top Halladay this week, and Philly’s co-favorite pitcher delivered one.

Bouncing back from an off-game at Atlanta, Lee had everything working versus the Nats on Thursday.

Lee threw a complete game shutout, yielding only three hits and a walk in the 4-0 win. Amazingly, he fanned 12 Nats on only 99 total pitches. That, my friends, is almost impossible to do.

In recognition of this masterpiece (and we may not see a better pitched game all year, even from this staff), Cliff wins our third Top Phillie of the Week Award.

 

GOLD NOTES

Here is one of those stats that is hard to fathom, or Hard to believe, Harry if you prefer.

(Per an AP recap piece), prior to Halladay and Lee throwing their complete games, no Phillies’ pitching tandem had done so since  Paul Byrd and Curt Schilling in May of the 1999 season. This tidbit came to my attention in an AP recap, and my head is spinning to try to comprehend it.

Yes, complete games are rare, but how can they be that rare? 

One would think that this pitching staff will not need another 12 years to duplicate what should be very achievable. It may happen again in the next 12 days.

 

For more information on Matt Goldberg’s new books, as well as writing, speaking and interview requests, please e-mail: matt@tipofthegoldberg.com or contact him via his Bleacher Report homepage.

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Chase Utley: Power Ranking the Phillies’ Top 10 Second Basemen of All-Time

The Philadelphia Phillies are just over two weeks into the 2011 baseball season, and their superstar second baseman has yet to take the infield.  Unfortunately, at this point there is no guarantee that Utley will take the field this season.

So far the Phillies have done fine without Utley, going 9-4 and sitting atop the NL East division. The pitching staff has, at times, looked as though they might be able to carry this team without anyone at all playing second base.

But let’s talk big picture for a moment: What if Chase never returns?  Or, assuming he does return, what if he is never the same hitter that he was before?  If Chase Utley pulled a Sandy Koufax right now, where would he rank among the Phillies’ all-time second basemen?

Let’s have a look at the top 10 second basemen in Philadelphia Phillies’ history, and find out. 

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Philadelphia Phillies: Are the Phillies Better Without Chase Utley?

Bill Simmons calls it the Ewing Theory.  Other sports fans have associated the phenomenon with Peyton Manning, Alex Rodriguez, Tiki Barber and Drew Bledsoe. But in Philadelphia, there is only one player who should come to mind:

Bobby Abreu.

As I will tell anyone who will listen, I moved to Philadelphia the night the Phillies traded Abreu. Being a “stat-head,” I was a huge Abreu fan, and his being traded was, to me, just more evidence of the presence of dolts in major league front offices.

“Yeah, sure, go ahead and trade your best player,” I thought, sarcastically. I was sure I had moved to Philadelphia just in time for the beginning of a low point in Philadelphia Phillies history.

Of course, we all know what happened next.  Immediately after Bobby left town, the Phillies made an unexpected late-season run at the wild card, falling just short.  The following season the Phillies won the NL East, and the year after that the World Series.  

A baby dynasty was born, and we may be in the middle of a full-fledged dynasty that can trace its roots all the way back to that night I sweated my you-know-what off unloading my double-parked U-Haul in front of my first apartment north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

“But Asher, why are you bringing this up now?  And what does any of this have to do with Chase Utley?”

Good question.

The underpinning of Simmons’ Ewing Theory is that, every now and then, a team loses its star player, and for whatever reason the team plays better without their star than it did with the star. It stems from the run that the New York Knicks went on in the 1999 NBA post-season after Ewing tore his Achilles tendon in the first round of the playoffs.

Without their star and future Hall of Famer, the Knicks ran all the way to the NBA Finals.

Other prominent examples include the Tennessee Volunteers winning the national championship the year after Peyton Manning’s epic four-year career came to an end, the Seattle Mariners winning 116 regular season games the season after completing the dismantling of the Griffey-Johnson-ARod triumvirate and the 1999 St. Louis Rams dominating the NFL after losing starting quarterback Trent Green in the pre-season.

“But Asher, what are you trying to say?”

Right.

Has anyone around here noticed how well the Philadelphia Phillies seem to play when Chase Utley is not in the lineup the last couple of years?

As of Sunday afternoon’s victory over the Florida Marlins, the Phillies are now 10-4 and are tied for the third-best record in all of baseball behind the Cleveland Indians and Colorado Rockies, two teams on amazing hot streaks.

Last season, Utley missed 47 games due to various injuries, chiefly a thumb he injured sliding head-first into second base. The Phillies went 97-65 overall on the season, for a .599 winning percentage.

With Utley in the lineup, they were 68-47, for a .591 winning percentage.  

Without Utley, the Phillies went 29-18, for a .617 winning percentage.

If these numbers do not shock you, they should.  Because they are shocking.  Utley is roundly considered one of the best players in baseball, and generally speaking the best players in baseball—the Albert Pujolses, the Robinson Canos, the Joey Vottos, the Troy Tulowitskis—should be indispensable parts of their teams.

In a 21st Century sports world in which we are constantly pondering the meaning and measure of overall value and value to the team, how do we quantify the value of a player whose team can not only manage just fine without him, but whose team might actually play better in his absence?

There are a million possible explanations for an up-tick in a team’s performance in the absence of their star player, whether it be the other players taking it upon themselves to step up, to a coach suddenly having to coach better in the absence of his star player, to other personnel changes on the team that would have led inevitably to better performance anyway.

In this specific scenario, Utley’s absence the last couple of seasons seems to have caused a re-ordering of the lineup, which has had positive impacts upon the other hitters. In 2010, Raul Ibanez positively caught fire subbing for Utley in the three-hole ahead of Ryan Howard, and in 2011, the 1-2-3 combination of Shane Victorino, Placido Polanco and Jimmy Rollins has functioned well at the top of the order.

And there can be no doubt that, whatever his limitations at the plate, Wilson Valdez’s glove had been a big part of the Phillies’ ability to lose Utley and keeping winning.

For my part, sitting here on a Sunday afternoon having watched the Philadelphia Phillies get out to a 10-4 start on less than the dominant pitching we were all expecting and an offense that got off to a hot start but already seems to be showing signs of being capable of the same streakiness (and slumpiness) as last year’s team, I personally would prefer to have Utley back.

This early in the season, we need all hands on deck, including the hands of one of this generation’s finest second sackers.

Nevertheless, the lessons of the Ewing Theory and of Bobby Abreu loom large in my imagination as I ponder whether this Phillies team may discover that, going forward, the continuation of the Gillick-Amaro Dynasty depends upon not the ability to hold on to Chase Utley, but rather upon the ability to get value in return for him while they still can.

As Phillies fans have learned before, and as the sports world continues to make clear, sometimes getting rid of your best player can be the catalyst for greater success.

And frankly, the longer the Phillies All-Star second baseman stays out and the Phillies keep winning, the more convinced I will be that this has become the case with Chase Utley. 

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Roy Oswalt Has Back Strain: Have No Fear, Philadelphia Phillies Fans

In Friday night’s series opener against the Florida Marlins, Roy Oswalt pitched four innings of no-hit baseball and looked magnificent. After allowing a solo home run to Logan Morrison to lead off the fifth inning, he still pitched well, allowing only one more run through six innings of work.

However, at the start of the seventh inning, something was wrong.

Roy Oswalt was warming up when he called over trainer Marc Andersen and manager Charlie Manuel to tell them that something was wrong. After some brief discussion, Oswalt was taken out of the game and reliever J.C. Romero was called from the bullpen to take over.

From here, the game went downhill. Romero only pitched to one batter, Logan Morrison, and allowed a single before Danys Baez took over for him, and then the nightmare began.

To start, Baez walked Gaby Sanchez, which sent him to first and Morrison to second. Next, he allowed a single to John Buck, which loaded the bases. Although Daniel Murphy popped up in the next at-bat, a pinch hitter came up to the plate and gave the Marlins the lead.

That pinch hitter was none other than Greg Dobbs, one of the Phillies’ worst clutch hitters in recent memory. After the Phillies chose not to resign him this past offseason, the Marlins swooped in and signed him to a minor league contract.

The same Greg Dobbs, who more often than not failed to deliver when the Phillies needed him most, actually hit a two-run single to score Morrison and Sanchez.

The same Greg Dobbs gave the Marlins a 4-3 lead over the Phillies in the seventh inning.

The same Greg Dobbs won the game for the Marlins after neither team scored following his two-RBI single off Baez, who was given the loss.

There are two points to make here: one, that Greg Dobbs actually bothered to do something good for his team after he left the Phillies; and two, that Oswalt most likely would have won the game had he not left following his injury.

Oswalt’s injury was officially diagnosed as a lower back strain and he is currently day-to-day, but he hopes to make his next start. However, Oswalt himself said that it’s more a middle back injury and that he could have pitched the seventh, though he felt it was best to leave before he messed up the game himself. Ironically, it was his fill-ins who did just that.

In the past, Oswalt has spent time on the DL for lower back strains. In 2006 and 2008, Oswalt spent time on the DL due to hip and back problems, and he missed two starts in 2009 because of a lower back strain, which resulted in him being placed on the DL on September 16 of that year, causing him to miss the rest of the season.

Oswalt also said in the same interview mentioned above that he had suffered back spasms through the fifth and sixth innings and his back tightened up after he bunted a ball and ran to first in the bottom of the sixth, something he hadn’t experienced before.

This calls for an obvious question: should Phillies fans be worried about their “ace of clubs“?

Since he has been on the DL many times due to back issues, could this be an addition to an already-long list of DL stints for Oswalt?

Personally, I don’t think there is much to worry about. Since Oswalt has spent time on the DL for these back issues, I would like to think that he would know the severity of a back issue. Then again, there’s always a chance the issue could be more than meets the eye, especially since, as previously stated, Oswalt has not had back spasms nor a “middle back strain” as he claims.

However, Oswalt does expect to move past this quickly and make his next start Wednesday against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Although there is a chance that this could be a long-term issue, I believe it is slim and that this is a more precautionary move than anything else. Then again, I could be wrong.

I believe, Phillies fans, that this is minor and will quickly pass. Oswalt will start on Wednesday and that is that.

Phillies fans, do not be alarmed.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Why the Team Has Shown Us Not To Doubt Its Lineup

“They can’t hit.” “They’re too old.” “They’re all injured.” These phrases were all uttered toward the Phillies lineup leading up to the 2011 MLB season. Now, eleven games into the season, the Phillies have been proving these critics wrong. The Phillies are 8-3 and they have scored 66 runs. Also, they have hit a remarkable .318 AVG, and have a tremendous .386 OBP which leads the MLB. They are third in the MLB and second in the NL with 64 RBI.   

So, what have the Phillies been doing so well to silence these critics? Here are the reasons why the offense has gotten production like this out of a lineup that was expected to be mediocre at best.

1) Stars Producing

With Utley injured, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins knew they had to step up. They did just that. Howard has hit .333 with three HR and 13 RBI. Howard is striking out less than his usual total, with nine strikeouts through eleven games, and has an unbelievable .643 SLG. Jimmy Rollins does not have an RBI yet this season, but he is seeing the ball great. He has 15 hits, hitting .326. Not to mention, Jimmy has stolen a team high three bases. These two veterans need to continue there great play in order for the Phillies to succeed this season.

2) Ben Francisco

Jayson Werth who? Ben Francisco has been one of the, if not the, best Phillies hitter this season so far. Ben is hitting .279 with 2 HR and 8 RBI. Not to mention he had two potential home run balls pulled back by the wind at Citizens Bank Park. He has also produced four BB, and a .354 OBP. These numbers are coming from a lifetime bench player, who has not had more than 15 HR in his career. Look to see Ben francisco have a huge season for the Phillies.

3) Production in place of Chase Utley

Whether is has been Wilson Valdez or Michael Martinez, the Phillies have gotten great production out of their fill-in second basemen, in the field and at the plate. Valdez is hitting .353 with five RBI, and Martinez even though he only has nine AB had been described as the most upbeat player on the team by Charlie Manuel. Valdez has been great in the field, turning four double pays and not committing one error this season.

4) Bench Production

John Mayberry Jr. and Pete Orr are two names nobody outside the Phillies fan base would even recognize. However, Mayberry leads the MLB in pinch hits with four, and Orr is right behind with three. Mayberry had a walk-off RBI single in the first game of the season, and Pete Orr has appeared in four games this season. Also, Brian Schneider is a very reliable backup catcher. He has one HR and two RBI this season in two games. 

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Philadelphia Phillies’ Roy Halladay and New Names for the 4 Aces

Roy Halladay was dealing once again, throwing eight innings of two-hit, shutout ball on the road versus the Washington Nationals. Well over the 100-pitch mark, he was laboring in the ninth.  The Nats had narrowed the deficit to 3-1 and had runners on first and third with just one out.

Skipper Charlie Manuel walked to the mound, and almost any other pitcher in Major League Baseball would get a pat-on-the-back and an ovation—if they made it to the ninth in the first place.  Per Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News (quoting Manuel), the conversation between manager and ace pitcher went like this:

Manuel: “Well, Roy, here I am.”

Halladay: “I’ve got ’em. I’ve got ’em.”

Manuel: “OK, you’ve got ’em, then.”

As manager-pitcher conversations have always been protected by some form of doctor-client (Doc-client, in this case?) privilege, we’ll have to take Charlie at his word. And yes, I prefer to think that this is all that the no-nonsense Halladay uttered.

Doc goes back to the hill, and yields an infield hit, which cuts the lead to one and places runners on first and second—still with one down. Adding to his legend, what does Halladay do?

He strikes out one-time Phillies-hero Matt Stairs looking, and then rings up surefire Hall-of-Famer Ivan Rodriguez with yet another Backwards K.

The game-ending strikeout means three things:

1. The Phillies win again, and now sit at an impressive 8-3.

2.  Halladay runs his record to 2-0, with a low, low ERA of 1.23.

3.  “I’ve got ’em. I’ve got ’em.” becomes an instant Philly sports quotes

 

Where Will This Quote Rank in Phillies Sports Lore?

Only time will tell as to whether Doc’s quote will be remembered years down the road, but his terse, ultra-confident statement and the way he backed it up with two called strikeouts may well end up being the stuff of local legend.

Indeed, it may one day take its place next to Ryan Howard’s “Get me to the plate, boys”, which the big man lived up to with a two-out, two run, game-tying double in the bottom of the ninth. Of course, both the line and the line drive were delivered in Game Four of the NLDS in Colorado.

So, RH-2, if you will, may not quite make it to the level of RH-1’s quote, but it sure beats other recent quotes with more pejorative connotations, such as “They’re fair-weather fans” or the iconic “We’re a small market franchise.”

Adding to the Nickname for Our Starting Rotation

In September, 2010, and in this very space, I was brainstorming nicknames for the Phillies three-headed monster, and ended up proposing H20. The nickname went a little viral, even if only some of that virus accompanied that piece.

When Cliff Lee, shocking-Lee and joyful-Lee returned to South Philly, I was among those who proposed (and advocated) R2C2 for the rotation of Halladay, Lee, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels.

Some other nicknames have joined the discussion, including variants of Mound Rushmore, the Fab Four (or Phab Phour) and the Four Aces.  For my money, none are as catchy as H20, but I’m not going to advocate getting rid of Cliff Lee.

Still, the Four Aces (I’ve never been a “phan” of overusing the Ph) is a good name, but it seems about time that we define the aces a little more.

Admittedly, I’m not a bridge player, and don’t care for watching poker on TV, playing it with friends or doing so online. But in most people’s minds, the Ace of Spades carries the most weight, so let’s go to it.

Roy Halladay:  The Ace of Spades

Many, including yours truly, have referred to Doc as the Ace of Aces, and he certainly is—among the Phillies, and among all great pitchers in MLB.

Hence, Halladay takes his rightful place as the Ace of Spades: dark, serious and just a little menacing

Cliff Lee: The Ace of Hearts

Lee won the hearts of Phillies fans in a few short months in 2009, forever earning the town’s love with his two wins versus the Yankees in the 2009 World Series, punctuated by his behind-the-back stab and his ho-hum, yawning catch of a weak pop-up.

Philly’s heart was broken when its newest sports hero was traded to Seattle last year, but they loved him even more when he spurned the Yankees’ mega-dollar deal to pitch for the Phillies and their ultra-sensitive fans.

The man from Arkansas is clearly the Ace of Hearts

Roy Oswalt: The Ace of Clubs

For many years, Oswalt was the lone ace for the Houston Astros, but he has pitched quite well since coming here.

Oswalt is a man of few words, but (a la Big Roy Halladay) lets his play do the talking for him. Given his big stick mentality and the fact that he starred for another ballclub, Little Roy looks just fine as the Ace of Clubs.

Cole Hamels:  The Ace of Diamonds

A diamond is a high-priced commodity, which can be quite brilliant, or somewhat flawed.

Hamels, sometimes known as Hollywood, has just a little of that blue-blooded, snooty appearance, which belies how fierce of a competitor he is.

And despite a somewhat flawed 2009 season, Hamels has mostly shined brilliantly in his tenure here.

The Ace of Diamonds is a good fit for Cole.  King Cole? Nah…

As for Joe Blanton, an excellent No. 5 starter despite two straight rough outings, I’m thinking it over. Jack of Clubs doesn’t quite do it for me.

 

For more information on Matt Goldberg’s new books, as well as writing, speaking and interview requests, please e-mail: matt@tipofthegoldberg.com or contact him via his Bleacher Report homepage.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Never Question Halladay in the 9th Inning

No true ace willfully gives up the ball with a game on the line.  As a fan, you admire this, but sometimes, you still have a hard time trusting them.  Maybe the closer should be called you think.

But when Roy says he’s got it under control, you just have to trust him, no matter how bad things might look.  Halladay has earned the right to be his own closer.

I learned this last night in the ninth inning as the Phillies played the Nationals.  Through the first eight innings, Halladay was on cruise control, allowing only two hits and shutting out Washington.  Although he had thrown nearly 100 pitches, things seemed to be in control.

That was about to change as Rick Ankiel led off with a double.  Jayson Werth followed with a single.  Just like that, Halladay was in his first jam of the night as the tying run came to the plate.  The bullpen came to life.  Surely, Charlie would be out on the mound to congratulate Roy on a game well pitched, and put the ball in the hand of closer Jose Contreras. 

But Manuel stayed in the dugout.

Halladay struck out the next hitter, Adam LaRoche, but the next two batters singled, driving in two runs and putting the tying run on second. 

Now, Manuel came running out of the dugout. 

The announcers assured those of us viewing at home that when Charlie runs out of the dugout he is not ready to make a pitching change.  The game seemed to be slipping away, a loss in a game like this could wreck the rest of the week and kill a team’s momentum, especially following a loss the night before. 

Surely Charlie must realize Halladay was done, I thought.  The 100-plus pitches having taken their toll, Halladay simply would not be able to finish what he had started, no matter how badly he wanted to.

Halladay, however, did not see things my way.  He assured his manager and teammates that he had things under control and would protect the Phillies lead, which was now perilously close to slipping away.

As Manuel walked back to the dugout, without taking his ace with him, I implored him to reconsider. He did not and Halladay stayed in the game.

What followed was some of the most focused, clutch pitching that I have ever seen in the ninth inning of a game.  The Nationals called for pinch hitter extraordinaire Matt Stairs to the plate, the same Matt Stairs who became a Phillies folk hero for his late game heroics.  I had a bad feeling about this matchup.  Stairs could end the game with one swing.  Given a fastball middle-in, Stairs would send the Nationals home winners.

Halladay simply fired three straight fastballs on the outside corner.  Stairs didn’t even move the bat from his shoulder.  I had never seen a hitter so overmatched at the plate.  Pudge Rodriguez followed.  The game now seemed safe.  Again, Halladay disposed of the hitter with three pitches.  The last a filthy curveball on the outside that buckled Rodriguez.

With this performance, Halladay has, in my opinion, earned the right to dictate whether or not he will stay in the game.  The way he bore down in crunch time was incredible.  To strike out the final two hitters on six pitches, with the tying run in scoring position, shows that Halladay is a true ace.

Charlie Manuel obviously knew better than to take the ball from Roy Halladay.  Next time I see Halladay in a jam in the ninth inning, I will know better as well.

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Philadelphia Phillies: 5 Realistic Expectations for the “Aging” Lineup

After 11 games of play, the Phillies are 8-3. Collectively, they’ve hit over .300 as a team—the only lineup in baseball to do so.

Obviously, the bats are eventually going to cool down, but early on we can already somewhat gauge what this offense is going to look like throughout the season.

Let’s take a look…

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