It’s that time of the year again, baseball season. I love this time of the year with the temperatures starting to rise and the boys of summer picking up their bats and gloves and heading out to the ball park. Nothing beats an afternoon at the ballpark with your buddies, some cold beer, and a stadium dog. I will say the one disappointing thing about baseball of the last 20 years is the lack of daytime games. Growing up in the suburbs of Philly they would refer to them as businessmen specials. I looked forward to the day when I would be working as an adult and take a lunch break and not come back to work so I could go watch a game. Don’t get me wrong most teams play early games on Sundays and usually one during the week but it doesn’t happen too often.
The last two nights I had the privlage of watching two Cy Young award winners pitch against the Washington Nationals. This season the Philadelphia Phillies went out and signed Cliff Lee in free agency. With the addition of Lee to the rotation the Phillies would trot out 4 former Aces with Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels. As a Phillies fan it is always a good time going out to see them play but this is one of the first times I’ve looked forward to seeing a well pitched game since the first time I saw Cole Hamels pitch. On Wednesday Roy Halladay took a 3-0 lead into the 9th inning. The Nationals got a couple runners on base in the 9th and all of a sudden the score was 3-2. Charlie Manual walked to the mound and everyone was waiting for the Closer to walk to the mound. Instead Halladay tells Manual, “I got ‘em. Don’t worry.” So Manual said to go get ‘m. Halladay proceeded to strike out the next two batters. Halladay didn’t get the shutout but still got the closed game.
On Thursday night I finally got to see Cliff Lee pitch. Lee settled in pretty quick and so did the Nationals pitcher Jordan Zimmerman. Heading into the 6th inning neither team had scored a run and only the Nationals had a man who even reached base. The Phillies got 2 runs in the top of the 6th and that was all Lee needed. Lee went into the 9th and finished the game with 12 strikeouts. It was almost masterful to watch these two guys pitch. I assume it was how many Braves fans felt in the 90’s watching Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and John Smoltz pitch on back to back to back nights. Thinking back only a handful of teams have ever carried pitching staffs of similar caliber. The Yankees last year and the previous year trotted out Pettitte, Sabathia, and Burnett which won them a World Series in 2009.
In 2001 the Diamond Backs had the Big Unit and Curt Schilling which may have only been two pitchers but they were enough to win a World Series and were two of the biggest names in the game at the time other than Roger Clemens. Baseball has been making a turn over the past few years from the power hitting game to small ball and pitching. Teams need good pitching to go anywhere in October. That is the most exciting part about the 2011 Phillies is that they arguably have the best pitching matchups for any team this year. In October when teams drop down to 4 starters instead of 5 the Phillies will have a favorable matchup in almost every game. At the very least it will be an even matchup.
It was a great two nights at Nats Park and the best part was the Phillies won both games. It was also fun watching the game with my dad and brother last night and the Baroness on Wednesday. I know a lot of people that read this are Washington area fans. If you are a Nationals fan the good news Is Jordan Zimmerman, John Lannan, and Stephen Strausburg could be 3 really good starting pitchers. Jayson Werth, Adam LaRoche, Ryan Zimmerman and Bryce Harper will be great hitters for the team. If the Nationals work on getting a dependent bullpen and a couple more key position players they will start contending in the NL East. On a side note, after the game in The Bullpen, White Ford Bronco was rocking the house. The Bullpen was packed with people listening to the tunes from the 90’s.
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