Roy Oswalt pitched his first game tonight as a Phillie, gave up 5 runs, had crappy defense, got 1 run of support – must have felt right at home.
Meanwhile, J Happ threw 6 innings of 2 hit, a 2 base ROE by Clank, 4 walk ball. He doesn’t have really great stuff – a FB 89-93 MPH, a curve he seldom threw, and a changeup. It’s funny because Manny Parra has better stuff, including an unhittable changeup, but he just can’t seem to throw his great stuff consistently, don’t ask me why. Must drive Brewers fans crazy.
Tonight, no Roy, no Pence, no Berkman, no problem.
Happ just might could have been a lil nervous when he went out there – gave up a leadoff double to Weeks, then a walk to Hart. But he pulled himself together and got Braun swinging, got Prince to popup to left and McGehee to groundout to third. He started off the second inning with 2 swinging Ks, a 3-2 walk and a groundout to Pedro Feliz, playing 1B while Lance, still in uniform, took a (supposedly) planned day off.
Happ threw 43 pitches through the first 2 innings, half balls, and I had one of those uh-oh feelings, because Parra had had wicked stuff in the 1st, but in the 2nd, he threw a FB right down the middle on a 3-2 count to Michaels, playing RF, who sent it into the middle window in left field. And with a 1 run lead, Happ never looked back.
And once CJ hit a 3 run opposite field homer (on another one of those 2-0 right down the middle FB), he just put pedal to the metal and cruised through the next 2 innings. Mills pulled Happ after 6 innings, 98 pitches. As the guy came back from 2 months on the DL with elbow soreness only a few weeks ago, no reason to stretch him out.
Bourn went ofer – shoulda had an infield single, but Phil Cuzzi, the 1B ump got the call wrong. Then again, Michael should have run through the bag instead of sliding head first. He made a WebGem catch on Prince’s looping hit to shallow center in the 8th and basically made every tough catch look easy – just as usual. Now that his batting average is too low for Astros fans, I’m starting to hear the same sort of thing I heard about Everett – and how saving hits and runs isn’t important. Unless you are Clank and giving them up, of course…
Sanchez went ofer, but made all the plays, which were all pretty routine.
Keppinger, batting 3rd, had 2 walks and a homer off the fowl pole (chicken sandwiches all around!!!) and made all the plays.
Clank, batting 4th, was ofer (Parra saved his very best stuff for Clank), had a GIDP, and muffed a fly ball to left – near the bullpen, he tried to make a hot dog catch, turned at the wrong minute and the ball clanked off his glove. So much for Bagwell teaching him how to hit.
Jason Michaels hit 5th, went 1 fer 3 with a walk, scored 2 runs, hit the go ahead homer and made all the plays.
Feliz hit a single!!!! for his first hit in like weeks and scored when CJ hit one out. He didn’t mess up any plays at first.
CJ, as usual, hit 7th – don’t ask me to explain this because I can’t and his hitting streak is now 13 games. He’s starting to hit for power now, as he did in the minors, and so be it and shall it remain. Now, if he can just get the glove work under control. He bobbled an easy GIDP ball, but got the out at first, but fortunately, no one scored.
Quintero went ofer, and his trouble framing pitches got 5 strikes called balls, including one strikeout that went as a walk.
News – apparently Lance was packing his things and saying good-bye to everyone, so it loks as if the Yankees trade is a go. I have heard different accounts of which players we are receiving, so I am going to wait until it is official before discussing them. Last player we got from the Yankees was LaTroy Hawkins, which worked out pretty well for us.
Will be interesting to see if they call Brett Wallace right up and play him. We’ll see if he can hit outside of the top hitters parks in the PCL.
Next 2 days, it will be the attack of the little leftys, Wandy and Wesley. Let’s hope we can get Wesley his first W on Sunday and Wandy a nice W tomorrow.
