Blanton Finally Eats Innings, But Not in a Good Way

On Saturday, Joe Blanton boldly ventured where no 2009 Phillies starting pitcher had gone before: the eighth inning! Unfortunately, his outing, while long, was not exactly prosperous, as he permitted all six runs in the 6-2 loss to Atlanta. Braves' starter Javier Vazquez held the Phils to a pair of solo home runs, by Chase Utley and Raul Ibanez, in picking up the win.

Blanton only allowed eight hits and a walk, which were much-improved numbers. He finally completed his quest to pitch in the eighth inning as a Phillie. But the completion of his quest was a Pyrrhic victory, as the two-run homer he surrendered in the eighth inning reduced the Phillies' WE to 2.1%. The Phillies might have been better off burning another reliever in the inning, as a 4-1 deficit would certainly have been preferable to a 6-1 deficit.

Blanton shouldn't get too excited about his eight-inning, six-run performance, though it was closer to a quality start then most of his rotation-mates have come. The Phillies have the fewest quality starts in the league, which is even more of a concern when you consider that a number of those "quality starts" have been of the six-inning, three-run, quotation marks-needed variety. Hopefully, J.A. Happ will make a start in next Saturday's doubleheader, and remain in the rotation. The five-man rotation currently has four strong candidates to be the one Happ replaces. It's a testament to the offense that this team is still near the top of the division.

Saturday afternoon's game was a FOX broadcast, so many unlucky, non-international, Phillies fans had the game blacked out in their region. All Saturday MLB games, with start times between 1:10pm and 7pm, are blacked out, with the exception of your region's chosen game. As a Boston-area resident, the Red Sox-Rays game was selected for my area by FOX, as it should have been. I subscribe to the "why watch one game at a time, when you can watch more than one" theory, so I would have watched the Sox game on TV, either way. But, instead of being able to watch the Phillies on my computer, via MLB.TV, I was relegated to listening to the game. It seems that there should be some kind of viable solution to this problem. Perhaps MLB.TV could air all of the FOX broadcasts, with commercials adjusted for each region? I am not sure, but it is rather frustrating to pay for an MLB.TV subscription, and then be prevented from watching my preferred team. (Especially considering that, as soon as the games end, I race out to patronize the sponsors who brought me the game.) The Phillies play next Saturday afternoon, in a 1:05pm start, in a makeup game against the Nationals. As it starts before 1:10pm, hopefully, it won't be blacked out.

Phils play the Braves Sunday, in an early TBS game. Brett Myers will attempt to extend the Phillies' streak to one quality start in a row. Kenshin Kawakami starts for the Braves. At least this game won't be blacked out.