Phils Ace Drops One to Fish....

- Cole Hamels was not his usual self as the Phils got beat 5 - 3. Hamels went 6 innings, but gave up 5 earned runs. The Phils' offense was anemic and supplied only by two Jayson Werth homeruns. Overall, a bad night for the Phightins. When your ace is on the mound and doesn't have his best game, a professional, consistent offense is usually capable of picking up your best pitcher. That didn't come close to happening, with the Phils garnering only 5 hits (2 by the aforementioned Werth).



It merits mentioning that Wes Helms played first base last night and still has the same number of home runs on the year that I have (which is to say, zero). It gives those Chris Coste fans something to complain about, if nothing else.



On the plus side for the Phils, Ryan Madson came off the DL last night and blew away the Marlins in two innings of hitless, runless relief. That was the Ryan Madson I expected to see all year to this point.

- Last night's NBA draft lottery gave the Sixers exactly what they were expecting....the 12th pick of the draft. With that pick, ESPN's Chad Ford is predicting (Insider account required for link) that the Sixers will take Al Thornton from Florida State in effort to push a more up tempo game. I'm ok with that. Even more exciting, I thought, were the other picks Ford had the Sixers making. He had the Sixers taking PF Josh McRoberts at 21 (from Denver and the Iverson trade) and PF Glen "Big Baby" Davis at 30 (via Dallas). Both would be smart picks and would immediately give the Sixers much more competent options at power forward than Louis Amundson and Shavlik Randolph.

One interesting tidbit from last night's draft lottery was that the Celtics got completely shut out of the 1st 2 picks and slipped all the way to five. It serves them right as they tanked games down the stretch last year to get high into the lottery to begin with, whereas other teams like the Sixers, gutted it out and played hard. Couldn't happen to a better franchise and fan base.