For those of you keeping score at home, I couldn't get out of work/domestic responsibilities in order to get down to opening day. The lesson? Don't get married or obtain meaningful responsibilities in your job. It'll just keep you from opening day (although the two day games the Phils have this month are definitely fair game).
Any way, I was able to monitor the game via the Internet and I guess that's OK, considering when I looked out of my office window, the day was dreary, and according to CBS Sportline, the weather was "nippy". I guess I didn't get the memo from the National Weather Bureau when they introduced "nippy" into the weather technical jargon.
As for the game itself, it seemed to me that Brett Myers relied an awful lot on his fastball and it eventually caught up to him in the fifth inning, giving up 3 earned runs (the other run was unearned as a result of a JRoll error).
In a microcosm of last year, the Phils did manage to scratch back to tie the game despite poor pitching performances. They did so mostly on the backs Chase Utley (2 - 3, SF, HR) and the incomparable Jimmy Rollins, who took Nats setup guy Ray King deep to tie the score at 6.
As the game went to the top of the ninth, everything unravelled with the entrance of Flash Gordon into the game. Gordon, at least 62 years old by last count, is currently standing in as closer until Brad Lidge comes back this Saturday. My problem with this? Flash Gordon is too old to be the closer of this team or any other team. This temporary job clearly should have gone to the much younger JC Romero, the man who was clearly the most effective reliever down the stretch for the Phillies last year.
The results were predictable: Flash gave up 5 runs, all earned in a 1/3 of an inning of work. Nationals win, 11 - 6. The two teams meet up again on Wednesday night when Colbert Michael Hamels will face Tim Redding.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment