Broad Street Heroes

Yesterday was a busy day for me so I didn’t have time to express my views on the game last night.  Our air conditioner broke at the Jersey shore so I’ve been sweating profusely in 85 degree heat.  Anyway, back to baseball.  Overall, J.A. Happ didn’t pitch poorly, he was just a victim of good hitting.  I don’t know what it was about that 6th inning, but every hit that the Cardinals had was a bloop single that somehow found a way to fall.  It reminded me of that game Cole Hamels had earlier in the season where he allowed 10 hits, all of which were singles.  Happ suffered his first loss last night as the Phillies lost to the Cardinals 8-1.  He had good composure and control on his pitches, but in the 6th inning things fell apart.  Going into the game I felt like Happ would have a mediocre game due to all of the pressure that has been on him lately as a rookie pitcher in the spotlight, but he pitched admirably for the most part.

Who didn’t show up last night?  The Phillies lineup.  The Phillies had three or four innings where they stranded a man on 3rd base, showing that they couldn’t hit in the clutch at all.  It was a weird night.

I was in shock that Matt Holliday played in the game not even 24 hours after he was traded to the Cardinals.  That team is scary now.  Holliday and Pujols is a good 1-2 punch.  I wasn’t surprised that Holliday had 4 hits in the game.  The guy kills us, and he is one of my most hated players in the league.  I am one of the firm believers that he was out at home in that game against the Padres that got them into the playoffs in 2007.

The one thing about the Cardinals this year is that they have been unable to score runs and have relied on Pujols to carry them to 1st place in the NL Central.  Joel Piniero improved to just 9-9 on the season when he has an ERA under 3.00.  He could have 14 wins this season if the Cardinals provided him with more than 3.9 runs per start on average.  Anyway, now that they have added people like Matt Holliday, Mark DeRosa, and Julio Lugo, the Cards have a chance to ramp up the offense and be a real threat to the Phillies and Dodgers in the race for best team in the National League.