{"id":394,"date":"2009-10-08T22:57:31","date_gmt":"2009-10-09T02:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=394"},"modified":"2009-10-08T22:57:31","modified_gmt":"2009-10-09T02:57:31","slug":"nlds-game-2-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=394","title":{"rendered":"NLDS Game 2 Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn2.sbnation.com\/entry_photo_images\/131056\/153417_nlds_rockies_phillies_baseball_large.jpg\" align=\"left\" height=\"250\" width=\"300\" vspace=\"5\" hspace=\"5\" border=\"1\" alt=\"rockies nlds\" \/>Of course, it would have been really nice to take the first two games of this series and be in control as it shifts to Colorado, but it&#8217;s certainly not time to panic. \u00a0It&#8217;s now a best-of-three series, with two of them on the road, but I still like the Phils&#8217; chances, especially with the thought of a potential Game 5 back in Philly and Cliff Lee back on the mound. \u00a0Some thoughts on today&#8217;s loss:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Obviously, it was not the Cole Hamels we saw last October, but he looked pretty good. \u00a0He didn&#8217;t walk anybody, and the only two balls that were even hit hard were the two extra-base hits he gave up (Torrealba homer and Gonzalez double). \u00a0It&#8217;s pretty good timing that his wife went into labor today, because he almost certainly won&#8217;t be called on to pitch again until the NLCS, if they get there, and his start there is over a week away.<\/li>\n<li>I loved how the crowd at the game got loud and fired up at the start of the bottom of the 6th inning. \u00a0The Phils were down 4-0 and had been getting shut down by Aaron Cook. \u00a0The fans were looking to give the team a lift, and it seemed to work. \u00a0Three batters later (after two singles and a double) Cook was out of the game, and the Phillies were on their way back in it. \u00a0Great job by the fans there.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s hard to feel too good about our bullpen when, with the bases loaded in the 8th inning, Antonio Bastardo got the call. \u00a0The scary thing is, I agreed with Charlie on the move. \u00a0Jason Giambi can&#8217;t hit lefties anymore, and it probably helps that he&#8217;s never faced Bastardo before. \u00a0In any event, Bastardo got the strike-out he needed. \u00a0It just would be nice to have someone with more than 6 major league appearances in a spot like that.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Looking ahead to Game 3, there are two huge story lines: \u00a0who will be the Phillies starting pitcher, and how will the freezing temperatures and snow affect the game. \u00a0I won&#8217;t pretend to have the right answer regarding the starting pitching. \u00a0Charlie said after the game that is probably between Joe Blanton and Pedro Martinez for the Game 3 start. \u00a0Assuming Happ is ok after taking the shot to the leg today, I would go Blanton on Saturday and Happ on Sunday in Game 4. \u00a0I just think that Pedro is a bit of an unknown at this point. \u00a0Also, Blanton has had good success against lefties this year, which could be useful against a line-up that could feature as many as five left-handed bats. \u00a0I would also put Pedro out in the bullpen, and tell him to be ready.As for the weather, we&#8217;ll just have to wait and see. \u00a0I don&#8217;t think it really gives either team much of an advantage. \u00a0Too bad the Rockies don&#8217;t have a dome. \u00a0Of course, if the series is lengthened due to a canceled game or two, it could be nice to have Lee back out there in Game 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Of course, it would have been really nice to take the first two games of this series and be in control as it shifts to Colorado, but it&#8217;s certainly not time to panic. \u00a0It&#8217;s now a best-of-three series, with two &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=394\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[754,628,382,655,222,606,308,328,16,360,746],"class_list":["post-394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb","tag-aaron-cook","tag-antonio-bastardo","tag-charlie-manuel","tag-cliff-lee","tag-cole-hamels","tag-ja-happ","tag-joe-blanton","tag-pedro-martinez","tag-phillies","tag-playoffs","tag-rockies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}