Nationals Wrap-Up / Astros Preview

We finished the series in Washington yesterday with a 6-5 loss. Kendrick did not look awful, but he certainly did not look very good. After a solid spring, expectations were higher for him this season. He struggled at the very beginning and very end of his start yesterday, but in between retired 10 straight batters. So it looks like he could be effective, but yesterday may just not have been his day.


Thomas McCarthy hit two milestones yesterday in saying both the funniest thing he's ever said as well as the smartest thing he has ever said.

Funniest: "The Pirates will not be going undefeated this season." This was said right after they got their first loss after starting the season 2-0.

Smartest: "Man he is a good baseball player!" This was said about Chase Utley after legging out a double in the top of the 9th inning.

So congratulations to Thomas McCarthy. Keep this up and I might start calling you Tom

Something that bothered me throughout this game as well as after the game was the analysis of the Phillies hitting with runners in scoring position. Yes, we were 2 for 15. Yes, that is awful. But is it really that bad? Our first 2 runs were scored on groundouts. So we could really up that to being 4 for 15 seeing as we produced runs in those situations. Could we have gotten more out of those situations? Absolutely. But we still got something. Another run scored on a sacrifice fly. We could say that we make us 5 for 16 in the game with runners in scoring position. And one of those outs was Jayson Werth's fly out to deep center in the 9th that moved Utley over to 3rd. It didn't score a run, but it was some success. That would put us at 6 for 16 in terms of effectiveness with runners in scoring position. That's a .375 average, which isn't half bad where I come from. I realize that these opportunities could have turned into something much more, but don't be completely fooled by the numbers.

I don't know many people who love baseball statistics as much as I do, but there are some that make no sense at all. I hate when someone is up to bat and the stat "Runner on 3rd, Less Than 2 Out" comes up. A player could be 0 for 50 in those situations with 75 RBIs. It is completely irrelevant since all it takes is a ground out or a sacrifice fly to get a run home.

It is disappointing to lose to the Nationals, but winning a series is always a positive. And so we move on...

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We have the Astros coming up this weekend. Tonight Happ faces some no-name who actually pitched against us last year. He did pretty well in that game, but we often do much better against pitchers the second time around. The Astros have scored something like negative 3 runs this season while facing 3 very good Giants pitchers. We have Happ, Moyer, and Halladay this weekend, and I expect big things. Hopefully Happ can pick up where he left off last season and Moyer can be as consistent as he has been for us for a few years now. Halladay will never lose a game so no worries there (here's hoping that doesn't jinx him).

The general plan for this blog will be to recap each game but also preview each series. On off days I try to mix it up a little bit usually, but all of those plans can change depending on circumstances. For example...

I will be at Penn State this weekend, so I'm not sure on any udpates after tonight's or tomorrow's game. I do know that I will be updating on Sunday with something I'm pretty excited about before the home opener on Monday. So hopefully this can hold everyone over until then. Have a good weekend and go Phils!