Not there yet!
Looking around it seems like there’s a level of almost giddiness about the Phillies right now. While some of it is certainly understandable, some of it has also gone overboard. Voters on ESPN apparently have the Phils in first place in the “Who’s your pick to win the World Series” question which is just nuts. More importantly though, they haven’t won anything yet and we’re into the sudden death portion of the schedule. A mini-slump of two losses and the Mets taking advantage of terrible Marlins pitching to win two, and suddenly the Phillies are done for the year.
With that in mind, and an Eaton start looming tomorrow, tonight’s game is unbelievably important. This is probably the most favorable pitching matchup of the weekend, plus they don’t want to fall back behind after finally catching up. While I understand and generally agree with the caution in terms of using Hamels, we may be getting towards “A flag flies forever” territory making it worth the risk to push him a little bit. In an ideal world, he goes 7 on about 90-95 pitches while the offense goes nuts and he can come out with a 9-1 lead or something like that. I really would prefer not to see Gordon, Romero, and Myers tonight if they can help it. They can’t be far from arm falling off territory.
September 29th, 2007 at 2:15 am
Have no fear, Hamels was there! 116 pitches.