Apr 2, 2008

Things can quickly change

That's my message to Phillies fans, as the reigning NL East champs fell again to the Washington Nationals and are dangerously close to another one of their trademark slow starts.

Consider the things that have changed since my last post:

--The Red Sox were a middling .500 team, trailing both the undefeated Devil Rays and the Empire. They're now back in first with a two-game winning streak. Daisuke Matsuzaka and Jon Lester have turned in strong performances after they struggled in Japan.

--Yesterday, the Mets were buoyed by a strong debut from Johan Santana and looked like the Mets from the first half of 2007, but in game two Pedro Martinez went down like the Mets in the second half of 2007. (But tonight they pounded the Marlins.)

Point is, tomorrow morning I'm sure it'll be panic mode on WIP (unless Barack Obama calls in again) - but relax Philly, the Expos will come back to earth at some point.

{Despite the 1-0 final, Cole Hamels didn't dominate tonight, but he and the bullpen pitched well enough that the Phillies should have won this game. Every ball they hit hard, not that there were many, landed right at a fielder. Bad luck, I guess, but I still don't like it. Maybe I shouldn't have made any predictions, as two of my other picks, the Cubs and the Tigers, are also sporting 0-2 records.}

Random Sox notes: Congrats to Kevin Youkilis, the new record holder for consecutive errorless games for a first baseman. Lester's win was the first for a Sox lefty starter in Oakland since Zane Smith in 1995. Turns out we haven't had many good lefty starters since then - think David Wells, Steve Avery and a pre-ageless wonder Jamie Moyer.

Finally: Maybe Jonathan Papelbon is just upset Dice-K won't say what he named his son after almost a month:


(Matsuzaka) also had sufficient motivation to ask a clubhouse attendant to retrieve the game ball, which someone (the evidence points to Papelbon) had tossed into the stands.

Matsuzaka wanted the ball as a souvenir for his newborn son, whose name he has not yet made public.

"I had asked my teammates to hang onto the game ball, but I guess the message didn't get through," he said.

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