2009 Phillies - Week 2

1-1 vs. Washington Nationals
1-2 vs. San Diego Padres

Lame week two for the season, with everything overshadowed by a major Death in the Phamily, my man Harry the K, the man who called damn near every Phillies game I ever heard or saw, passed away in our nation's capitol on April 13th. And our Phillies of course beat the lame-ass Nationals that night, a bittersweet victory, to say the least. "Sugar" Shane Victorino and Ryan "The Black Lava" Howard each dinged their first of the year, Raul Ibanez put out his third, and Jamie Moyer got his first victory of the year. Only five games in seven days, with a scheduled day off followed by a rain out in Washington, followed by three straight losses, one to the Nats (their first win of the season) and then two straight to the Padres, who, like the Braves in the opening series, played better than they are. The second game to the Nationals featured the bullpen, specifically Jack Taschner, getting beat up and poor Philadelphia offense. In the first game of the Pads series, the Phils scored five in the first and were up seven to one (featuring Chase Utley's first homer of the season) when the Headies went into our gig in Red Lion, and when we were done, they had lost 8-7, apparently Madson choked it up. The next night's highlights were the middle of the order's power with Utley, Howard, and Ibanex all going deep, and then seeing my man Brad "Lights Flickerin'" Lidge blow his first save in 47 tries. All good things must come to an end, but my it was painful. Finally, we were down to the Padres in the ninth after the new guy "Too Cool" Raul Ibanez bonered on in left, allowing them to go up. It was all better though when the man smacked the Phil's first walk-off jack of the season and got mobbed at the plate as the Phils won 5-4.

So, the offense, except for my man J-Roll (who did homer in that final win as part of the comeback), is stellar. Everybody's power and average numbers are tip-top, but our pitching is suffering. Madson and Lidge are why we went to and won the World Series, and nobody can be perfect forever, but in order to win about a hundred games, we need to stop leading the league in home runs allowed. Less maudlin next week, I am sure...