If Blanton has returned to form, it's plus for Phillies in second half

NINETY-SIX degrees in the first inning, violent thunderstorms in the eighth inning, a one-sided baseball game in between - all in all, a chamber-of-commerce kind of afternoon (if hell has a chamber of commerce). And if the best work of the day was done by the grounds crew, corralling a runaway tarp lashed by winds that left everyone wondering if Citizens Bank Park had a cellar, Joe Blanton still, quietly, went about the business of finding the groove that he always seems to find at this time of year.

The complication this year was the oblique strain that forced Blanton onto the disabled list for the beginning of the season, and then mechanical issues when he came back - but it really is always something. Still, after yesterday's 12-3 Phillies win over the Cleveland Indians, a game in which Blanton gave up three runs and struck out eight in 7 2/3 innings, that makes two solid starts in a row.

Slowly, it seems to be happening again - and just in time for a Phillies team that will need to make some pitching decisions as the July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline approaches.

"In '05, I started off really terrible, too - my rookie year, 0-5 with like a 7.00 [ERA]," Blanton said. "I finished the year with like a 3.50. Same as last year, this year - start out bad. It's not the way I want to do it. I definitely want to start off well. But it gives you the peace of mind. I've been here before, I've had bad times before, it just happens to be at the start . . . It just looks way worse when you start off like that."

Blanton says he has varied his offseason and early season approaches several times, trying to figure out why he starts out slowly. Nothing works, though. Part of him says it is just a coincidence. Part of him, though, thinks back to his minor league days and his college days at Kentucky and notices a pattern that still exists today.

"Later in the game, I get stronger," he said. "The more innings I throw, I get better."

For his career, Blanton is 34-41 with a 4.60 ERA in the first half of the season and 31-18 with a 3.99 ERA in the second half. And, well, here we are, late in the first half - the time when this Phillies nucleus traditionally begins to play its best baseball. Also the time when trade-deadline decisions begin to be made.

We all knew what the overriding story line of this season would be. We knew it from the day that general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. made the decision to acquire Roy Halladay from Toronto in a three-cornered deal that also saw the Phillies trade Cliff Lee to Seattle and acquire prospects in return. At the end of the season, and at every significant milepost along the way, the same question would be asked: What if Cliff Lee had still been here?

The next milepost is the trade deadline, if not before. There is talk of the Phillies attempting to acquire a pitcher. The manager says it's all about the pitching, which is what he's said every year since he's been here. There has been reporting that the team has at least talked about kicking Pedro Martinez' tires again - and if J.A. Happ can't get himself healthy enough and ready enough to be back into the starting rotation pretty soon, there will be more talk about more tires and more kicking. A lot more.

As the deadline approaches, the question Amaro and his lieutenants need to ask themselves is fairly simple. Last season, from July 1 to Sept. 22 - when their lead became 7 1/2 games with 12 to play, and with nobody chasing - the Phils went 49-27 and did it by giving up three runs or fewer in 43 of those games. Do they now have the starters to repeat that kind of run, to play something approaching, say, .640 baseball for about 3 months?

It seems pretty clear that Halladay and Cole Hamels will hold up their end, with Hamels being a key part of the Phillies' premise when they dealt Lee. The issues come thereafter, and the big question gets subdivided here. Jamie Moyer has been excellent so far - but can he sustain it for the rest of the season? Kyle Kendrick has been decent overall, but is decent good enough for your fifth starter? Happ was an original component of the rotation on merit - but can he recover from the forearm problem that has him continuing to rehab in the minors?

And, maybe most important of all, can Blanton be Blanton again, a guy who needs to pitch a lot of workmanlike innings if he is to fulfill his role? Can he find that second-half groove again?

The answer to that one in particular might be the most important of all.

"I feel like I'm throwing the ball well," Blanton said. "I know our other starters are throwing the ball well right now. Everybody says hitting is contagious, and it's true. But pitching is, too. You just see good results every day. You don't really compete with each other, and I don't know if you feed off each other so much, but it's contagious. There's something in it."

Amaro has about a month to decide if that's true.

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