Let’s not go anointing Vance Worley as the second coming of Cy Young, but he sure was good
enough last night to beat the New York Mets. Vance was erratic at times, but
made big pitches when he had to, and was pretty effective. Worely went six
innings allowing just two hits, and four walks.
He struck out five, and didn’t allow a run. On 102 pitches, Vance threw 56 strikes, which
isn’t exactly the greatest ratio, but as stated before, he didn’t allow a run,
and that’s what matters.
Vance has allowed just two earned runs over three starts
in 16 innings as a starter in the majors. Worley had great mound presence through
the night while working him out of a few jams.
It was a pretty big night at the plate for Ryan Howard, who went 2-4 with six
RBI. All six RBI came off the long
ball. Howard smashed a 2-run shot in the
bottom of the 4th, and then a grand slam in the bottom of the 6th. It was Howard’s 10th grand slam of
his career, and the 259th of his career.
Howard is now tied with Del Ennis for second place on the
Phillies all-time home run list. The all-time
leader is no surprise to anyone, Michael Jack Schmidt at 548. Anything is possible, but I’m not sure that
Ryno is ever going to get to that mark.
If it leads to a title and a few more rings, then I sure hope he does.
There were a few other records set last night as
well. Howard’s 27 RBI in April is a club
record, and Placido Polanco smacked
his 39th hit in the month of April which is also a club record. Previously the record was 38 hits, by non
other then Chase Utley who did it in 2008.
The Phillies have feasted on Mets starter Mike Pelfrey
who is just 1-3 with a 9.38 ERA at Citizens Bank Park. You can say the same for Saturday’s starter
Jonathan Niese who will start against Roy
Halladay on Saturday. Niese was
bounced from his last start at CBP pretty early in a 11-0 loss in early April
in which he also had the unfortunate draw of facing Halladay.
The Phillies have now won 17 games in April which ties
the franchise record. Today being the 30th
of April, and the last day of the month, gives them a chance beat that mark by
one.
Side
Notes –
Herndon
- David
Herndon has not looked good in his last few appearances. The Rule-5 pick of the Phillies in 2010 has given up 7 earned runs in his last four appearances. As it goes right now, don’t expect Herndon to come into a game when it’s on the line. Not until he figures things out.
Injury
notes – It looks as though a few Phillies on the injury front are
making some strides. Most notably Jose
Contreras will start throwing later this week, and Brad Lidge will begin a
throwing program as well. Lidge still
has a long road ahead of him, but this is a big step.
Oswalt
- RAJ
seems to think that Oswalt will miss his next start, and said on Friday that
the Phillies would consider flipping around the rotation with the off day on
Monday.
Brown
- Domonic
Brown has hit a couple of homers in his first few starts in Clearwater, and
last night got two more hits. He is getting healthier, and the Phillies will
have a decision to make with Domonic in the coming weeks. He’s hitting pretty
well, so Charlie will surely be asking about for him soon. Likely though he’s
going to head to Triple-A because he has seen pretty limited playing time. Brown only had about a week’s worth of
at-bats in Spring Training before suffering his injury.
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Tags: Citizens Bank Park, Domonic Brown, Grand Slam, Halladay, Mets, Oswalt, PhilaPhans, Phillies, Ryan Howard, Vance Worley
Antonio Bastardo did a pretty nice job blowing up Kyle Kendrick’s great pitching performance, and the return of Ryan Howard.
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