Midnight’s Children

The Phillies ended their road trip with a 5-1 loss against the Pirates today. Paul Maholm pitched a complete game allowing just 2 hits and 4 walks while striking out 2 to even his record at 2-2. Nate McLouth hit two home runs for the Pirates in the victory. The Phillies bats did absolutely nothing against Maholm managing just a double by Pat Burrell and a single by Eric Bruntlett. Brett Myers allowed 4 runs ons 8 hits in just 5 innings of work as his record fell to 2-2 with the loss.

The Phillies jumped out in front of the Pirates 6-0 last night and then held on for a 6-5 win in Pittsburgh. Chris Coste led the offense with 3 hits and 3 RBI’s batting out of the 5 hole while Jayson Werth hit his 5th homer of the season. Adam Eaton started for the Phillies and went 3-2/3 innings before making his normal early exit. He just does not have what it takes to be a pitcher in the major leagues. He needs to be sent to the minors or better yet released so another team can put up with his lousy pitching. Tom Gordon got the win to even his record at 2-2 while Brad Lidge pitched a scoreless 9th inning to get his 6th save of the season. So far so good with Lidge as the closer for the Phillies. He seems to be in good form and has basically thrown perfect relief as the closer. He still has a 0.00 ERA and it is now the end of April.

The Phillies came from behind for the second night in a row with a 3 run 9th inning to beat the Rockies 8-6. Pat Burrell delivered a bases loaded double to get the Phillies the win. Ryan Madsen pitched a scoreless inning to get his first win of the season. Brad Lidge pitched a scoreless 9th inning for his fourth save. The win puts the Phillies at 11-10 for the season and they head off to Milwaukee for a two game series starting tonight.

The Phillies came from behind with a 2 run 8th inning and a 3 run 9th inning to get a victory over Colorado. Kyle Kendrick went 5 innings giving up 5 runs on 8 hits in another rocky start for the Phillies. Luckily the bullpen came in and did its job well allowing only 1 hit over the last 4 innings. The offense was led again by Chase Utley who hit a home run in his 5th consecutive game and tied a Phillies record. Pat Burrell and Jason Werth also homered with Werth’s of the inside the park variety. The big hit came with the bases loaded and two out in the 8th when Carlos Ruiz stroked a two-run double to right.

The Phillies fell to the Mets 4-2 last night at Citizens Bank Park. The Mets are picking up the pace against the Phils after losing 9 straight. They have taken the first 2 games in this series and the pitching of the Mets is frustrating the Phillies batters. Johan Santana shut them down on Friday night and Oliver Perez shut them out for 5.2 innings before turning it over to the bullpen that was able to finish the job. Jose Reyes hit a two-run homer in the 7th inning to seal the victory. Billy Wagner threw a scoreless 9th to get his 4th save of the seaon. The loss drops the Phillies to 8-10 on the season while the Mets improved to 10-6.

The Phillies received another excellent pitching performance from Brett Myers yesterday iin a 10 2 win of visiting Houston. Myers threw 7 inning s of 5 hit ball alowing just 1 earned run and walked only 1 wyhile strking out 8. He had his command from the start and looked to be in mid-season form. The Phillies are really counting on Myers to be one of their anchors along with Cole Hamels. The Phillies received home runs off the bats of Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Pat Burrell and Chris Coste who had 4 hits on the afternoon. The Mets are in for the weekend and a good pitching dual tonight with Cole Hamels vs Johan Santana. Should be a agood series.

After taking 2 of 3 from the Cubs over the weekend the Phillies had Monday off. They will start a 3 game series with the Houston Astros tonight and will send Adam Eaton to the mound for his third start of the season. So far Eaton has pitched pretty well but you can’t help but hold your breath every time he starts to the mound. In my opinion he is a total waste of time as a starting pitcher and probably wouldn’t be much of a reliever. He just doesn’t have what it takes to succeed in the big leagues. Hopefully the Phillies will have had a good day of rest and will come out swinging. They really miss Jimmy Rollins in the line-up and need to get him back to give them the spark at the top of the line-up.

The Phillies lost to the Cubs 6-5 in 10 innings today at Citizens’s Bank Park. They came back for a 3-1 deficit to take a 5-4 lead before Tom Gordon cam into the 8th inning and gave up the tying run. They had a chance to win it in the 9th but a spectacular defnsive play by Derek Lee at first base kept the winning run form scoring and sent the game to extra innings. Rudy Seanez took the loss for the Phillies when he allowed an unearned run in the top of the 10th. Bob Howry pitched the 10th for the Cubs to get the save for Kerry Wood who earned his first win of the year after ptiching two scorless innings.

After a rough 1st inning in which he gave up homeruns to Derek Lee and Aramis Ramirez the Phillies Brett Myers was able to settle down and pitch 8 solid inning for the win. Pat Burrell was the offensive star again going 2-4 with a homer. He has been single handedly carrying the Phillies since the start of the season with his clutch hitting. Brad Lidge pitched a scoreless 9th to get his 2nd save of the season. The win improved the Phillies to 5-6 on the season.

The Phillies picked up where they left off last season with a come from behind 5-2 win over the Mets in New York yesterday. Jamie Moyer got the win for the Phils who evened their record at 4-4. They have taken 9 straight over the Mets and will be going for their 10th straight tonight. It is always nice when the Phils beat up on the Mets. Kyle Kendrick will start tonight for the Phils. He is 1-0 on the season and ptiched decent in his last start against the Reds. He needs to tweek his pitching game by commanding his sinker that allows him to confuse the batters with his other pitches. If the sinker is working right he can be tough to face and will get a lot of ground balls.