Liberty Ball

The Phillies were shut out last night in the series opener against the Nationals last night.  Shane Victorino, Chase Utley, and Geoff Jenkins each had 2 hits, but the Phillies left a total of 9 men on base.  That makes it pretty hard to win a game.  Brett Myers did get a quality start (6 IP, 3 Runs), but without any help he picked up another loss running his record to 2-5.

The good thing is that last season in the 11 games that the Phillies were held to 1 run or shutout, they came out the next day and won 9 out of 11 games, scoring an average of almost 7 runs a game.  Already this season the Phillies have been held to 1 or fewer runs 3 times.  In the next game, their record is 3-0 and they have scored 25 runs in those following 3 games.

With the loss, their 3rd in a row, the Phillies dropped to 24-22.  Once again I look to Cole Hamels to get the team back in the winning direction.  Right now the Phillies are in a 3-way tie for second place with Atlanta and the Mets at 1.5 games behind the Marlins.  It is of the utmost importance to get 2 wins here against the subpar pitching of the Nationals before we have to face fireballer Roy Oswalt.

In other news one of my most hated players retired today.  Mike Piazza called it quits after 19 major league seasons.  Sadly he is continually called one of the best catchers of all times.  He was a terrible catcher.  He could not throw out anybody, and he was not that good at calling a game.  He was a good hitter, but he was not a good catcher.