Monday, April 7, 2008

1st Series vs. Washington Nat's, 2008 Season.

In hopes of giving Charlie Manuel a chance to make a fresh start with his young talented offense, and his questionable, but somewhat hopeful bullpen, we started out of the gate and fell flat on our faces. In Monday's much anticipated home opener, many questions would be quickly answered. Was Brett Myers ready to start again? Would Feliz and Jenkins fill the necessary holes? Was the bullpen stable enough to compete? Can Utley win the third straight MVP for the Phils? And how many games is our bumbling, stumbling manager going to put in the lose column for us?

So questions one was answered soon enough as Brett Myers struggled to find a rythym only managing 5 innings giving up 3 earned runs with 2 walks and 2 Ks. Claiming he just couldn't get comfortable, the hope was that he would build off this poor start. Unfortunately for Brett, he followed one poor start up with another on Sunday only pitching 5 innings again, this time giving up 4 earned runs, walking 3, striking out 4, but gave up 2 long balls. Hopefully Brett can get his act together.

On the upside, Pedro Feliz and Jeff Jenkins seem to at least be a step in the right direction at this point. Although Feliz hasn't posted any star numbers at the plate so far, he seems to be our best weapon at third and with the inevitable departure of the high touted Wes Helms, it looks like the Phils are making the commitment to Feliz. Jeff Jenkins has had a bit of a better first week at the plate. Posting a .333 batting average, but currently leads the team in strikeouts with 8. Hopefully he can be a bit more patient at the plate.

I want to skip ahead to Utley, so as to not get distracted. Chase is storming out of the gate this year, posting a .519 batting average in the first week. Blasting 3 homeruns already, with 6 RBIs and no strikeouts, it looks like he is well on his way to a MVP canidate year.

The bullpen.....UGH... Whoever decided that Clay Condrey, Chad Durbin, and Tom "Dim Fading Light" Gordon would be solid parts of our bullpen, was smoking some fun stuff.... Eh hem.... Pat Gillick...

This bullpen, spearheaded by great-uncle Charlie, has been nothing short of abismal to start this season.

Game 1, Charlie makes the brilliant move of pulling JC Romero after throwing 12 pitches and strking out two in the 8th inning, to bring in Tom Gordon in a non-save situation. Big no-no. In 1/3 innings pitched, "Flash" gave up 5 hits, 5 earned runs and a walk to blow the game out of the water. Thank you uncle Charlie for losing our first game for us.

Game 2, Debuted our real number one starter Cole Hamels, who pitched a complete gem of a game, minus one long ball to Ryan Zimmerman. Unfortunately, the offense just didn't come to Wednesday's game.

Game 3, The third game featured another poor outing by a starter with the aged Jamie Moyer going 3 1/3 giving up 6 runs, 3 earned on 9 hits. This game has been the highlight of the bullpen so far who managed to go the rest of the game only giving up 1 run in the remaining 6 2/3 innings. This game ended with a gift walk-in run after a stunning bunt in which Rollins managed to go from first to third.

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