Brad Lidge came in in the 9th inning tonight, and wasn't able to get the save. In fact, he wasn't even able to make it through the inning. Lidge got 1 out in the inning, and then left the bases loaded, on a single, hit batter, wild pitch, and a walk. Luckily for Lidge, after he came out of the game, Ryan Madson struck out Ryan Zimmerman, and retired Adam Dunn on a groundout to preserve the 5-3 win for the Phillies.
I'm not really sure where this leaves the Phillies bullpen in terms of who the closer is. Brett Myers came in in the 7th inning, relieving Martinez, and got an out in the 7th, and then pitched a scoreless 8th. As previously mentioned, Madson came in and got the save with 2 outs, and held the Nationals to 0 runs when he came in with the bases loaded and no one out. It's obviously not good when you pull your closer in the 9th inning.
The Phillies really needed to win this game, as the Nationals are terrible, but yet always seem to battle against the Phillies. The Phillies scored 5 runs, on 5 solo home runs... classic Phillies. It's good that we hit a lot of homers, but the homers will always be there; we need to get better at generating runs. Rollins and Victorino need to get on base, and start stealing some bases. The 5 solo home runs were hit by Ibanez, Werth, Ibanez again, Ruiz, and Utley. Utley and Ibanez reached 30 home runs on the season, which gives the Phillies 4 players with 30 or more homers this year. Pedro Martinez moved to 4-0 on the year going 6.2 innings, and allowing 3 earned runs.
1 comment:
After blown-save-in-the-making #11 last night, I don't see how there can be any other choice at this point but to go with Myers as closer, or maybe a tandem of Myers and Madson (though Madson's blown saves this year don't exactly inspire much confidence either). Lidge can be reserved for when and if the Fightin's have a 5 run lead going into the 9th -- and even that's a risk! I think most would agree that Brad's contributions to the Phil's '08 championship season earned him the right to considerable slack this year -- but the slack is long gone and the rope is now strained to the breaking point! It's simply not in anyone's best interests -- including Lidge's -- to trot him out there any longer. Better luck next year, Brad.
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