Tomorrow night’s matchup of Roy Halladay and Josh Johnson could be quite the sight for lovers of great pitching. Tonight’s game was anything but. Joe Blanton got the win after giving up 8 hits, three runs and a couple of walks over five innings, while his counterpart, Javier Vazquez, last just 4.1 innings give up 6 runs on 9 hits.
As Matt Gelb points out, the Phillies didn’t swing and miss on even one of Vazquez’s 75 pitches. Things got off to a bad start early for the Marlins’ $7 million offseason signing when Jimmy Rollins smacked his 36th career leadoff home run. Unfortunately, it looked like there were maybe 35 fans in the right field stands to see it…
Ryan Howard and the resurgent Raul Ibanez each had a couple of hits, as did Ross Gload, who started in place of Ben Francisco. Gload also knocked in a pair of runs and raised his season average to .364 (in only 22 PA).
Ryan Madson came in for the save, his fourth in four chances, lowering his season ERA to 0.64 in the process. His performance since taking over the closer role certainly has to make you wonder whether he should keep the job not only when Jose Contreras comes back, but also when Brad Lidge returns.
The Phillies take game one, but tomorrow night is the main event between Halladay and Johnson. The question is, will any Marlins fans bother to go see it?