An off night for a bad team and a good night for a better-than-average team meant John Maine returned to the rotation from the DL last with sufficient run support to relax which in theory anyway, what a team should be able to do against a team like the Nats.
The Murph is still hitting the bejauysus out of the ball, another three hits worth, including another homer.
8 runs in the 3rd was just the kind of medication a rubbish bullpen on the heels of an amazing and thoroughly unexpected two innings of success on Tuesday night deserved. A night off from pressure.
Not only that but whilst the Mets enter into a cream puff section of their schedule,
the Phillies were losing their third game in a row to the Dodgers, and just like that the NL East lead evaporated and the Mets are once again tied for the top.
nice and easy
Most importantly of course was a night off from the pressure of relying on the pen to save a win. It was like being on a mini holiday for a night.
Brian Stokes even earned his first career save with four solid innings of three hit shutout relief for Maine.
So feel free to worry amongst yourself about Maine being rusty, having right shoulder soreness after his outing, Pelf being tired and on the verge of unprecedented pitching workloads and the bullpen whilst Oliver Perez certainly well overdue for one of his curiously miserable performances heavily laden with concentration lapses against a low-rated team.
Something tells me this tie for first is only going to last 24 hours so enjoy it while it lasts. Even if the Phillies bullpen pitched like the Mets last night and their ace, Cole Hamels, like Pelf for the Mets, nears his all-time highs in innings pitched for the season.
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5 comments:
Hi Jaap, I just found out you had your own blog. I love it - especially your videos of Archie, Dingbat and Meathead.
Wasn't last night wonderful? It's interesting, that with all the talk in the last few days of Maine, Perez or Martinez possibly working out of the bull pen, no one mentioned the idea of STOKES doing that - but in retrospect it seems like a perfect idea. All season long I have been missing Aaron Sele - I know he wasn't great last year, but he had his moments - remember the extra innings game in Houston? The one with the catch on Tal's Hill? He was the long man for that game. And we need someone calm and dependable for situations like that.
Hi Katherine - thanks for stopping by and also your comments. Agreed, Sele had his moments last season - that 17 inning game in Houston being one of the better ones. On the other had, he had his fair share of ineffective moments too. That reminds me, I wonder what ever happened to Dicky Gonzalez
He's in heaven with Nino Espinoza
Nah, Dicky's still alive although his career ended rather abruptly, didn't it? Couldn't even last with the Devil Rays. Still, do you realise he never made a fielding error in his MLB career. That's something to tell the grandkids about, if he has any yet.
Maybe he changed his name to Nelson Figueroa?
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