CLEVELAND -- So, what impressed you most about Ryan Howard's mammoth home run last night in the third inning of the Phillies' 9-6 win?a) It came on an 0-2 pitch.
b) It was measured at 451 feet and landed in the second deck in right field at the Jake, territory Jim Thome, Travis Hafner and few others have reached.
c) It was hit against a left-handed pitcher (Jason Stanford).
While A and B are nice, to me, C is the most significant. After striking out against Tigers reliever Bobby Seay with two runners on base in the seventh inning Sunday, Howard was batting .189 with 35 strikeouts in 74 at-bats against lefties. But, in the first two games against the Indians, he was 4-for-8 with two homers against left-handers Cliff Lee, Jason Stanford and old friend Aaron Fultz. Howard is a little sensitive when asked about hitting lefties. Frankly, he's tired of the questions. He thinks he proved last season, when he batted .279 with 16 homers and 45 RBIs against lefties, that he's capable of handling them. But there's a reason teams routinely bring in their best left-handed reliever to face Howard late in a game. Chase Utley is already killing lefties (.520 since June 5, .336 overall). If Howard starts beating up on them, too, well, it could be scary.
* Geoff Geary is searching for a quick fix to his ongoing problems. Is it mental? Is it mechanical? I'm not sure, but I know he's been bad for about the last six weeks. Meanwhile, Jose Mesa has usurped Geary's role as a late-inning setup man and got a huge out last night.
* Ran out of room in the 50-cent edition, but Charlie Manuel thought Ryan Madson was being squeezed by home-plate umpire C.B. Bucknor in the eighth inning. "I felt like Madson was making some good pitches, but for whatever reason, we weren't getting calls," he said. "I felt like Madson had [Trot] Nixon struck out at least once, maybe twice." Nixon wound up walking.
* Two starts, one win for Kyle Kendrick. That's as many wins as Freddy Garcia has in 11 starts. I'm just sayin'.
* Looks like Johan Santana had some extra motivation to shut out the Mets last night.
* Looks like Johan Santana had some extra motivation to shut out the Mets last night.
2 comments:
KK was a little up in the zone, which is unusual for him because he's such a groundball pitcher. I suspect a little nerves. Nonetheless, he did a respectable job. Garcia needs to stop worrying about his wallet, and go get surgery. Burrell needs to stop trying to hit HRs, shorten his swing and concentrate on making contact ...
I watched the 9th inning last night, and I swear, I never saw more hard hit balls than the ones every Indians batter hit off Alfonseca. It just so happened that 3 of them went right at somebody. Another practically took Ryan Howard's arm off. That was probably the shakiest save I had ever seen.
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