PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils welcomed the Marlins to the Bank tonight for the final series of the 2009 regular season. Joe Blanton got the start and was decidely not Joe Blanton like, allowing 5 runs on 9 hits in 7 innings. Incredibly the Phils bullpen was even worse allowing a further 2 runs and 5 hits. Only Chad Durbin managed to get by unscathed but that was in the 9th inning when it was already to late. With Raul Ibanez, Jimmy Rollins, and Pedro Feliz all taking the night off the Phils lineup again struggled. They could only manage 7 hits on the night and only a massive 2 run blast by Ryan Howard in the 1st inning, averted a shutout. I am not sure what happened to the Phils tonight. For whatever reason they just came out flat and never recovered. Perhaps they're still dazed from celebrating their NL East title, or maybe they're all just a little tired. Whatever, it is they better get over it quickly or they're going to end up going on the road throughout the playoffs instead of getting the homefield. On an even more somber note, it was revealed today that both Chan Ho Park and J.C Romero will not be able to pitch in at least the NLDS for the Phils. This means that J.A Happ pretty much has to go to the bullpen for the playoffs, otherwise the only left hander in there would be Scott Eyre who has a bone spur in his elbow and can only pitch to a couple batters at a time. Currently the only lefthander in the pen besides Eyre is AAA call up Sergio Escalona, who looked horrible tonight and probably isn't an option, although Charlie always says he likes to have 3 lefties in the pen. At any rate Charlie is going to have a lot of tough decisions to make when he puts together the playoff roster. For now the Phils are 92-68 overall and thanks to losses by the Cardinals and the Dodgers, they remain the 2nd best team in the NL, just 1 behind the Dodgers for numero uno.