Weekend wrap: A sweep in the District
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Weekend wrap: A sweep in the District
Andy Martino
The weekend was certainly interesting. It began on a muggy afternoon at Barack’s house, included four games, a rain delay, ugly pitching from both sides, progress from Brad Lidge, and wins for Sergio Escalona and Andrew Carpenter. In the end, the Phillies accomplished their first four game sweep in a road series since June 19-22, 1995, when they played the Mets at the parking lot formerly known as Shea Stadium.
A few items for you to chew on this Sunday night or Monday morning: It was interesting that Lidge did not begin the ninth today. Manuel left Scott Eyre in to face two lefties before summoning his closer. You could view this in a number of ways. Lidge pitched two days in a row, and Manuel said he wanted to get him rest. But methinks that if the manager had total trust in his closer right now, Lidge would have been out there. It’s not a big deal, and Lidge seems to be progressing. But that moment may have told us something about where he’s at.
Also, if you missed it, Lidge offered some thoughtful points in this morning’s paper about the situation with Obama and Notre Dame (Lidge is a person of faith and attended the University). Thought you might be interested, as this issue was all over the news this weekend. Whether you or I agree with him or not, I’ll tell ya this: Lidge can always be counted on for thoughtful answers to serious topics.
***
Another interesting pitching decision: Jamie Moyer, originally scheduled to pitch tomorrow in Cincinnati, has been pushed back to Wednesday. Cole Hamels will start tomorrow’s series opener. Manuel gave two reasons for the change: It allowed extra rest for the struggling Moyer, and lined him up to face the Marlins next week, instead of the Yankees.
Moyer is 12-1 lifetime against Florida; the Yankees, of course, feature a powerful lineup and, because next weekend’s series will be played at Yankee Stadium, will have a designated hitter. “I wanted to give Jamie a little break,” Manuel said.
It makes total sense to avoid pitching Moyer in the Yanks’ new homer happy, fraudulent, taxpayer funded park(did I digress there? Oh well). But it’s too bad when you have to start moving around your rotation because your starters are virtually guaranteed to fail against certain teams.
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Add this to the weird weekend file: As per Rule 10.17(b)(2) on page 120 of the Major League Baseball rule book, because the Phillies played five innings on defense, Drew Carpenter had to pitch just four innings to be eligible for the win if his team was leading at the time he was removed.
Carpenter left the ballpark thinking he did not earn the win, but (presumably) woke this morning to learn that he had. Clay Condrey, who originally got the win, instead earned a save.
***
And thanks to Sergio Escalona for offering a reminder of the emotional intensity of sports, which at this level is sometimes buried beneath ego, money and media-savvy. After winning his first big-league game, Escalona stood in front of his locker, head dripping sweat, and said this: “Oh my God. Amazing. Yeah. First game, first win.”
And thanks to Sergio Escalona for offering a reminder of the emotional intensity of sports, which at this level is sometimes buried beneath ego, money and media-savvy. After winning his first big-league game, Escalona stood in front of his locker, head dripping sweat, and said this: “Oh my God. Amazing. Yeah. First game, first win.”
He then showed us his phone and exclaimed, “14 texts!”
Charlie Manuel chuckled and said, “I’m happy for the kid. He was into it.”
….okay, gotta get back to Philly, so I can fly to Cincy. In honor of the visit to our nation’s capital, I bought another history book on tape, Jon Meacham’s “American Lion,” a bio of Andrew Jackson. Though it recently won the Pulitzer, I’m not finding the book as impressive as “Founding Brothers.”
Remember the fun we had in March with analogies? Well, the obvious one with the brash and tempestuous Jackson is Larry Bowa, I think. If anyone wants to offer a baseball figure-to-president suggestion, and it’s good, you might just become an early contender for…comment of the week!
Bye.
Comments (30)
Andy: Appreciate your mix of sports with other topics whether its politics or entertainment. Makes for interesting reading.— KarenA- Park should be sent to the pen. Its where he shouldve been from day 1. Happ deserve a start (even if its against the Bronx bombers).— KarenA
- Let's see how Moyer throws Wednesday against Cincy. If he continues to be hammered, then we have a situation: Who is Happ replacing in the rotation or do we need to replace both? It would be a tough call. You can't replace two veteran starters with no options and/or possible unwillingness to go down to the minors. You can’t put both in the pen, because you have to make a few more moves and it’ll disrupt the bullpen chemistry. My bet is that Moyer stays in the rotation no matter what and Park to the pen. Would it be fair to Park if Moyer continues to struggle? No, but Charlie has a lot of faith and respect for the veteran pitcher. Now, how many more chances Moyer has left? That is the question.— EL Zorro
- Nice move on Charlies part mixing up the rotation. Love Hamels going against Sabathia.— KarenA
- A fitting analogy may be: George Washington and Carpenter. Neither really did anyting to deserve praise, except win serve their time and go back to where they came from— jeff gross
Comment removed.- John Felske and Jimmy Carter....both easy to forget, no accomplishments to speak of and couldn't lead a 3 year old to the rest room with a map.— jimmymack
- Andy.....Lidge pitched 3 days in a row, not two. He pitched Thurday against the Dodgers----remember the Ibanez gamble in the top of the 9th leading to the Dodgers' 3rd run scoring----in addition to Friday night (blown save) and Saturday's day game (save). Yesterday marked the 4th game in a row for him. I can understand Charlie's caution. BTW, Madson wasn't used at all yesterday because he had also pitched in the previous 3 games.— bski
- How about Willie Randolph as James Buchanan? The Mets/country falls apart and he acts like there is nothing he can do about it and lets everything go to dirt. I am happy with the Mets results, though Buchanan still has got some explaining to do!— Timmy
Regular whipping boy Jack Taschner does a great job out of the bullpen putting out the Park fire and then holding the line for three innings. Where's the kudos today? No wonder they say Philly is a tough place to play. Too bad Charlie didn't have Feliz bunt in NY like he did yesterday. We might be up by a 1 1/2 games instead of down by 1/2. Anyone else want to see young John Mayberry as the next call up so Charlie doesn't burn out Ibanez by All Star break? That's really my only complaint with Charlie. I doen't think he doles out enough rest to his regulars. With that bench, who can blame him though?— RAS- One more observation... it was good to see Utley rake a few first pitch fastballs for a change rather than fall behind in the count. The results were predictably good. Let's hope he stays with it in Cincy and NY.— RAS
- Ras, Even though mayberry is hitting in the .270's he may be on the way up, but so may Uzio (I forgot how he spells it) the guy who lost the job to Cairo. He's havign a great year it seems in LV— jeff gross
- Selig : Hoover No matter what successes they actually accomplished in their service, these two will forever be associated with their failures.— bacbank
- bacbank, you hit one out of the park.— oldecityslicker
- Andy, while I might not agree with ALL of your political inuendos and such, I appreciate them (Unlike some close-minded people)...Baseball is interesting, as is politics.....Two of my fav. topics, way to bring them together into one!! I love it, and Andy you are the best Phils beat writer ever...you seem to actually care about more than baseball....— Buddude
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