Chan Ho Park was allowed to remain in the rotation, and delivered six strong innings. Jimmy Rollins was dropped to the fifth spot in the order, and reached base twice, scoring and knocking in runs. Jayson Werth was given the green light to steal some bases, and he went ahead and stole all of them. Brad Lidge was brought in for the save, and, well, it wasn't pretty, but he did pick up his fifth save. Phillies' Manager Charlie Manuel's fingerprints were all over the team's 5-3 win over the Dodgers on Tuesday night.
Some have been calling for Park's removal from the rotation, ever since it was announced that he had won the fifth starter's job. (This replacement-level blogger was part of this rather unruly mob.) When Park got off to a slow start, others called for his ejection from the rotation, or, even better, from the team. Manuel showed confidence in Park, and kept sending him out for starts. Park rewarded his manager with his second consecutive strong start, evening his record at 1-1. Park held the Manny-less Dodgers to a pair of runs, and only seven hits. Park struck out three batters, without walking any, reminiscent of his magical 25:2 ratio in Spring Training. It was an outstanding performance by Park.
Chad Durbin, Scott Eyre, and Ryan Madson were also outstanding, constructing a scoreless bridge spanning between Park and Lidge. Lidge was sloppy, allowing three hits, and a run in the ninth inning. He required twenty-four pitches to get through the inning, which ended with the tying run on base. Yikes.
Jimmy Rollins was, finally, dropped out of the leadoff spot, as his inability to reach base was proving problematic in that role. Some believe that the shortstop's poor performance, after some very strong offensive seasons, could be performance enhancer-related. I think it is much more likely that he was injured filming that Dick's Sporting goods commercial. (Look at his expression. IMPERVIOUS. TO. PAIN.) Rollins is just in a bit of a slump. It's just more apparent, as his slump started when the season did, resulting in hideous season stats. He has also been unlucky, as his BABIP of .217 is well below his career average of .298. Rollins will get better, and luckier. That said, Manuel moved him to the perfect spot in the lineup for his success, as batting between Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez should guarantee him some good pitches to hit. Jayson Werth batted third in Tuesday's lineup configuration, which is fine, as Werth is kind of awesome. wOBA of .413 worth of awesome.
Werth stole four bases in Tuesday night's game, including a rare steal of home. As rare and unlikely this was, it wasn't the most surprising occurrence of the night. Pedro Feliz, known as "Senor Hackmaster" in some circles, has accumulated one-hundred and ninety-one unintentional walks in thirty-five hundred and eighty-six plate appearances. (His fourteen intentional walks have been removed from these counts.) About one in every nineteen plate appearances, Feliz coaxes a walk. (By way of comparison, The Awesome Jayson Werth walks once in about every eight and a half plate appearances.) Feliz rarely sees a pitch he doesn't find worthy of a wild swing, and excels at minimizing the opposition's pitch counts. Feliz came to the plate four times tonight, and walked all four times. (I calculate the probability of this happening to be approximately .000625%, or even less likely than J.C. Romero and Jack Taschner being on the 2009 Phillies' roster at the same time.) Feliz' four-walk game is Reason #5699 that you should always watch the entire game. You never know what's going to happen.
The Phils play the Dodgers again Wednesday, with Dr. Jamie Moyer getting the start. Moyer has been ineffective in five of his six starts in 2009, but all of these starts were prior to his receiving his doctorate from St. Joe's. Moyer will be opposed by former Phillie Randy Wolf. Wolf has a .249 BABIP in 2009, and his good fortune is about to run out.
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