phrustrated philly phan

Cole Hamels came through again for the Phillies pitching six strong innings allowing only two solo home runs. The Phillies stomped all over the Nationals tonight routing them 11-2. Hamels allowed only five hits, one walk, and seven strikeouts. Charlie Manuel pulled Hamels after the sixth as his pitch count approached 100 pitches. Hamels even added 2 runs and 2 RBIs. Geoff Geary threw two scoreless innings and Fabio Castro finished out the game by throwing a scoreless ninth. Castro has yet to allow an earned run as a member of the Phillies.

The Phillies had two big innings, scoring 8 in the second and 3 in the fifth. Ryan Howard hit his 43rd home run moving within 5 homers of Michael Jack's single season Phillies record. Every starter except Abe Nunez had a hit and every starter excluding Chris Coste had either a run or RBI. Coste did contribute two hits to raise his average to .370. Rollins, Victorino, Utley, and Howard went a combined 8-17 with 8 RBIs, and 6 runs. The lineup has been terrific recently with Shane Victorino in it as he and Rollins has been great catalyst at the top of the lineup.

Utley showed again why he is the team leader and well respected by his teammates. He was plunked by Ramon Ortiz in the back and stared down Ortiz. Later in the inning, Ortiz hit Aaron Rowand obviously on purpose out of frustration. The umpire immediately ejected Ortiz. As soon as it happened, Utley came running out of the dugout towards the mound to protect his teammate. A clear example that this is Utley's team and he won't let his team get taken advantage of by anybody.

Tip of the Cap- Cole Hamels for being the stopper tonight for the Phils. He threw six strong innings and is quickly becoming their best pitcher. He will be fun to watch in the coming months and years.

Wag of the Finger- Nobody tonight as the Phillies crushed the Nats to stay 2.5 games behind the Reds.

Tomorrow's Game- A 1:35 start time with Randy Wolf facing off against Pedro Astacio in the rubber game and a game the Phillies need to win. Wolf coming off his best outing is 1-0 with an 4.35 ERA. Astacio is 3-2 with an 4.64 ERA.

Note: Tomorrow I will be driving down to school at Winthrop University in South Carolina. I begin school and baseball on Tuesday. Updates may be less frequent in the coming weeks as we begin fall baseball. Don't worry though I subscribe to MLB.tv so I will still be able to watch most games.

# posted by dane @ 9:53 PM