On the same night the Mets had a recent call-up from Triple A lead them (into oblivion), Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels struck out 7 in 5 innings of scoreless, one-hit ball. Ryan Howard hit a 3 run homer to deep left center and the Phillies, winners of 11 of their last 12, find themselves a mere 2 games behind the Mets.
Some unsophisticated types would be gloating at a time like this. Philling Station’s Brian Peoples isn’t one of those persons.
For anyone that still doesn’t understand why pitcher’s wins is an overrated stat, observe Ryan Madson. Madson replaced Hamels in the bottom of the sixth and the Reds quickly tied it up with a couple of solo homers off the bats of Austin Kearns and Edwin Encarcion. When Utley singled in Rollins in the top of the seventh, Madson became the pitcher of record, despite pitching much worse than four of the five hurlers used by Manuel.
For another example of the win being an overrated stat, witness Kelvim Escobar getting the W on Friday after 5 earned runs on 11 Seattle hits.
Cleveland designated Danny Graves for assignment yesterday. I’m not gonna say Nick Lachey was unavailable for comment, because that probably isn’t true.