(Brought to you by guest contributor Tommy Weida)
The Phillies pitching is getting knocked around by their opponents pretty good this season. However, the offense has been playing pretty well lately too. Finally getting hot and hitting the way they are supposed to be. Currently the Phillies are on a 4-game winning streak which is the second longest active streak in the league, behind only those red hot Red Sox.
Giving up 11 runs to a team that recently misspelled their own names on their home jerseys isn’t the way to continue that streak and climb to first in the NL East, but the offense once again got it done thanks to Rauuuuuuuuuuulllllllll, and Howard. (You’d think after winning Rookie of the Year and NL MVP we’d have a cool nickname for Howard.) But let’s face it, the Nationals pitching isn’t exactly stellar. And while the Marlins were on fire to start the season, their pitching can’t quite seem to measure up to solid hitting of their opponents.
So the Phillies have two more games against the “Natinals” before a familiar foe comes to town for a 3 game series. First series of the season with those “Masters of Choking” New York Mets. Mets’ website has listed Mike Pelfrey as pitching game 1 on friday, Oliver Perez pitching game 2 on saturday, and that should leave John Maine to pitch on Sunday in game 3. The team will then play 2 games against the Cardinals in St. Louis before heading to the Mets new hole of a ballpark, Citi Field. Luckily, it seems as if the Phillies will miss Johan Santana this weekend and in the 2 game series in New York on Wednesday and Thursday.
While Santana is wielding and impressive 3-1 record with a 0.70 ERA and 37 Ks in 25.2 Innings, the rest of the staff seems underachieving. Sounds kind of like the Phillies situation, only we don’t have a pitcher with a 0.70 ERA. The combined ERA of the 3 Mets pitchers that will be pitching in CBP is 7.01 while the 3 Phillies starters combine for an ERA of 6.89. The combined ERA of pitchers inside CBP is 8.64. But never should we Phillies fans count on easy wins from the Mets.
With Beltran hitting close to .400 and Wright scoring 15 runs and Reyes hitting .300, this series will not be easy for the Phillies pitching staff. Most of the Mets pitching staff has experience pitching against the Phillies. I do recall watching Maine handle us a few times in the recent past. So it’s no guarantee that the offense will be able to score 7 runs in the 9th, or hit 2 grand slams in a game.
Even though Raul is helping us quickly get over the loss of Pat Burrell, there is no denying that Pat Burrell was our Buffy to the Vampire Mets. Somehow, some way, Burrell was the one to drive the stake in the heart of the Mets. I hope that Raul continues is hot hitting but until he proves that he can get it done against the Mets in pivotal moments, I’m going to hold off on crowning him king of Philadelphia.
This is the series that the Phillies pitchers have to establish themselves as big game pitchers. Hopefully by the weekend the Phillies have bigger gap on the Mets in the East, and then prove to K-Rod and the rest of the Mets that they are still the team to beat in the NL East. It’s been fun watching the Phillies offense this past week, but its time that the Phillies pitching staff gets to work and stick it to the Mets.
