Ugh. It's never fun when your closer blows a save, and this one was less fun than usual. Brett Myers was cruising along with a 2-hit shutout when he came out for the eighth inning of a 3-0 game. Apparently, from the paper this morning, Charlie Manuel never intended him to pitch in the eighth, instead using him as a decoy to force the Marlins to announce lefty pinch hitter Lenny Harris so that Manuel could bring in the lefty Rheal Cormier, which would cause the Marlins to have to burn Harris and insert a right-handed hitter. Myers, according again to the paper, had told Manuel he was gassed because of the hot Florida weather. I was pretty pissed at the time, but if the guy is done, he's done. Unfortunately, Charlie was stuck with Cormier, who gave up a single to pinch-hitter Joe Dillon and a double to another pinch-hitter, Jeff Conine. With his nightly botching completed, Cormier exited in favor of Ryan Madson. Madson allowed both runners to score, but did at least finish the inning with the Phillies still ahead 3-2. That's one of the many differences between the Marlins and the Phillies. The Phils in that situation score maybe one of those two runners, if they get a break.
The Phils went quietly in their half of the ninth, and on came Billy Wagner. Wags was throwing Dade County heat, registering 101 MPH on the Doplhins Stadium gun a few times, and dispatched the first two hitters, setting up a confrontation with Damion Easley. Easley has pretty much bumped Luis Castillo out of his starting job, which Castillo had held for years until a recent injury. He's always had some pop, although he peaked out at an .810 OPS in 1998. Nevertheless, if you throw him a 99 MPH fastball belt high right over the plate, he knows what to do with it. Billy did. And Damion did. Tie game. Yikes. Billy got Alex Gonzalez to end the inning, and the game went to extra torture, I mean extra innings.
Once again, the Phillies failed to mount a rally against the Florida bullpen, and Amaury Telemaco was brought in to pitch the 10th. Telly had been called up to replace the execrable Terry Adams, who had been outrighted earlier in the day. Now we know why Adams had hung around so long. Telemaco gave up a leadoff single to Joe Dillon, who had stayed in on a double switch. He managed to retire Jeff Conine and Paul Lo Duca, forcing Manuel to bring in lefty Aaron Fultz to face Carlos Delgado, who is fast becoming a Phillie nemesis of the Chipper and Cornelius Floyd variety. Delgado promptly belted another two-out blast, this one to the deepest part of the park in center, scoring Dillon and giving the Marlins the 4-3 win.
What more is there to say about the Phillies bullpen, and Wade's handling thereof? It literally cannot get any worse. The Phils have the worst bullpen ERA in the major leagues. The worst. Finally, Wade's asinine policy of signing 38-year-old relievers to lucrative long-term contracts has bitten him in the ass hugely. Tim Worrell is a mental case of some sort, Cormier can't even get lefties out, and Terry Adams was so bad even Wade had to fire him. There is plenty of cheap, effective relief talent available every off-season, but somehow, Wade always feels the need to hire guys who remember the lyrics to Queen and Supertramp songs. Then there's Wagner. He started out pretty strong, but he's getting more and more hittable every game he enters, and if he goes over the edge, we're looking at 100 losses easy. Maybe it's time to make some radical changes. Ryan Howard can be dealt for relief help today. The same is also true with either Gavin Floyd or Vicente Padilla, although you wouldn't get much for either right now. Placido Polanco or David Bell are certainly guys who might get you a decent reliever. Come on, Ed, do something! We're 7.5 back and fading fast. Maybe Ed is waiting for the July 31st trading deadline to...oh yeah, never mind.
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