Forgot to mention that Mark Redman was placed on the Disabled List. Apparently, an in-grown toenail has been affecting him greatly. Poor guy. I will miss him. My new whipping boy will be either Willie Harris or Kevin Barry, the guy who replaced Redman on the roster for now.
Chuck James falls behind the first two hitters. When he's not coming in on hitters, he is pretty useless. He has got to challenge the right-hand hitters and get the ball in on them. He seems to dominate lefthanders, but against righthanders, he has got to throw with balls and we all know Chuckie has plenty of balls. He makes Ryan Howard look bad nearly every time he faces him. However, Bobby Cox screwed him over. In his first five starts, he threw an average of 87 pitches per outing. He never went over 94. That number was the exact number he entered the sixth with and Cox still put him out there. Just a dumbass decision.
It is so strange to say, "National League Homerun Leader: Chipper Jones." He is just not a power hitter, though don't tell him that this year. If he plays in 145 games this year, he could be a real MVP candidate. The Braves need him to be that kind of leader. He truly is the most dynamic hitter in the lineup and he does more good for this team when he is in the lineup and not at Hooters. His second at-bat against Freddy Garcia was classic Chipper. He gets ahead of the count and looks for his pitch. When he doesn't get it, he shortens his swing and serves a double into the left-center gap to bring home two. Why can't everyone be as awesome as Chipper? Oh, yeah, talent. Just clone him.
Someone told Andruw that hustling is a good thing. He beat out a first-inning double play ball to pick up an RBI. Didn't have many positives after that and had a funny corkscrew swing where he actually fell to the ground.
Jayson Werth tests Salty's arm and pays for it. It wasn't a great throw, but it was on the right side of the second base bag to go right at the runner and allow Renteria to tag him. Then Salty comes up to the plate and jumps all over a high fastball from Garcia, but it's caught. Nice second inning for him nonetheless. His second appearance was solid as he worked the count and forced Garcia to show him all his pitches before taking ball four. He would take a pitch on the back in his third plate appearance and was part of the most impressive moment of the game. Flyball to Shane Victorino, who entered on a double switch after Garcia hit Salty and was replaced, gets burned on a beautiful throw home. Salty ends up with an 0ffer, but looked good.
The Philadelphia Phillies just never seem to play this game with any kind of intelligence and/or urgency. It's like any old job to them, it seems, and as such, they keep making dumbass decisions. Glad to have them in the division!
Chad Paronto, Tyler Yates, Mike Gonzalez, and Rafael Soriano were just filthy, especially Yates and Gonzo. The Supreme Burrito got the win.
Ultimately, good game, though the Cox decision to leave James in to start the sixth nearly turned this game on its ass for the Braves.
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