The Sixers?

Tonight, Comcast decided to show the 76ers lose to the Heat rather than the Phillies. It would be one thing if they showed the Sixers completely tanking in order to get a better draft pick, but they actually tried to win the game tonight. If you need another example of the word "majoke", this situation is most definitely a majoke.

Needless to say

But in case I actually do need to say it, I did not watch the game tonight. Instead, I attempted to listen to it on the radio. That lasted about 3 innings until I had to fight every urge to throw my sister's clock radio across the back yard due to the horrendous reception as well as Cole Hamels' struggles. I cannot even begin to tell you how frustrating it was to listen to this game other than by simply saying that I was actually getting annoyed at things that Franzke and LA were saying. It was that bad.

So after 3 innings I came inside and followed the game on ESPN.com's Gamecast. Things got better from that point on, and I was able to settle down. The offense looks fantastic, and it appears that Placido Polanco needs some kind of nickname because I am going to be talking about him way too much, and I don't really want to use either one of those names as they are. If you did not get a chance to witness Ryan Howard's home run tonight (which you probably didn't), I just heard on Baseball Tonight that it was 172 feet high, and only 2 home runs since 2006 have reached that height. The ball was in the air for 7 seconds. I don't even know what those numbers mean other than that Ryan Howard is an absolute beast. If you're wondering about my .290 batting average prediction for him, he's currently at .364. And the first 2 games mean a lot for that stuff.
Something awesome about these games that may not be as obvious is our patience at the plate. We have walked 17 times in 2 games. Even Jimmy has walked 4 times, including to lead off the game today.

Although our two games this year have been great, Cole Hamels has already given me some reason to be concerned. It seemed like one of his biggest problems last season was getting out of bad innings. That proved to be a problem again today. Although it was not a huge deal because of the run support he received (which is uncommon for Cole) and it was only his first start of the year, I think this is something that we should keep an eye on as the season progresses. He was also uncharacteristically inaccurate. He has only walked 4 or more batters in a game 8 times in his career before tonight, which consisted of 116 games. This includes just twice in his last 60 games. Once again, we probably shouldn't be too concerned yet, but it is something to be aware of.

Kendrick will be pitching tomorrow to close out the series. I am guessing that Uncle Chuck is doing this in an attempt to keep the rotation the same once Blanton comes off the DL. Blanton would normally be our 3rd starter I guess, so we are just going to keep it that way. I have confidence in Kendrick. Apparently he has been working pretty closely alongside Halladay, and he's even grown some facial hair. I think the facial hair thing is actually more exciting. If the bats keep going the way they are, this game should not be a real problem no matter what Kendrick does. And we always seem to hit better when he pitches anyway. Craig Stammen will be pitching for the Nationals. No, you've never heard of him. Yes, he'll be in Triple-A by the 4th inning tomorrow.