By Amy McGinnis
Last night in Los Angeles, the Phils ended the first half of their thus-far-unremarkable season with an explosive Game 81. Phils won 16-1 (not a typo), while Dodgers fans surely wished MLB had a mercy rule in place. Needless to say, Philadelphia’s offense was aggressive; winning pitcher John Lannan had three hits of his own. Combined, the Youngs went 7 for 12 – Michael had four hits and Delmon was responsible for six (yes, six) of Philadelphia’s runs. It’s worth noting, however, that Lannan kept the Dodgers’ offense (who had scored six runs the night before) to just one run. Delmon Young’s superhuman canon of an arm helped defense quite a bit, as well.
At one point, Facebook began grouping all the “You think Howard’s mad???” posts together in their own little section of my news feed. Charlie Manuel made the decision to bench Howard for two games, a decision with which I am fully on board, and he sat and watched the runs pour in. For the record, I love Howie, and if he’s smart (he has to be; only a genius would have a lazy river built around the perimeter of his home), he’s taking the two nights off to get his head back in the game. Manuel mumbled his usual marbles-in-his-mouth, redneck English spiel, stating that Howard “is okay with it.” Here’s the thing: okay with it or not, he’s out of the lineup for 48 hours, so it’s in his best interest to make good use of that time. His offensive slump (combined with his visible physical discomfort and two consecutive lefty Los Angeles starters) is a great reason to take a couple days off, run drills, and refocus.
Another popular topic of conversation last night was “Why can’t the offense do this for Cole?” Really? Really? The offense hasn’t delivered nearly the way they did last night for anyone this season. Trust me; I was voted “Baseball Nerd Most Likely to Get Into a Fist Fight While Defending Cole Hamels,” and you won’t hear or read a negative word about that man from me. That being said, his ERA thus far is 4.58. Run support is clearly not his only issue. (I’ll go on the record and say that I don’t know what his issue is … he has pitched twelve fewer innings than Cliff Lee thus far this season, and their strikeouts are 99 and 105, respectively. It feels like Cole’s 2009 Part 2.)
Tags: Amy McGinnis, AmyMac, Charlie Manuel, Cliff Lee, Delmon Young, Dodgers, John Lannan, Michael Young, Phillies, Ryan Howard
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