Kidding, I think.
In all seriousness, I'm sure some of the Phillies faithful wouldn't have minded if that was Sgt.Taser's gameplan, after Figueroa entered the game in the 7th in relief of Big Joe, who seemed just fine despite his delayed start to the season, giving up only 2 runs and leaving the game with two men down and the Phils within striking distance, down just a run. Nelson proceeded to pull a Tiger on us-we totally should have seen what was coming like an oncoming freight train, but somehow ended up shocked anyway when we saw him crash and burn before our eyes. A bad walk, a bases clearing double, and just like that, the Phils were in a tough spot. That unfortunately, seems to be a very fatal and overlooked flaw of the Phillies-we truly have no reliever who has you thinking "we're gonna be fine", like you did in 2008 with Madson, Romero, and Lidge. The bullpen is the reason why Roy Halladay is on pace to pitch about 40,000 innings this season, and the reason our feast or famine lineup appears to be lacking something this year-losing Jimmy has certainly hurt, but the Phillies used to able to win the low scoring affairs....whereas now there is little certainty that we can hold on to a 3 run lead, or have the pen stop the bleeding when a starter falters. Games like tonight's and the Ryan Madson/Braves incident make you wondering if we're going to have to strip our farm system of more valuable prospects to shore up our bullpen-Ruben can't waste all the talent on this team, especially when our main weakness was quite obvious when the season began.
Let's just hope our favorite Comcast(Xfinity?) spokesperson can deliver tomorrow.
