Lights Out Lidge Time. Phills hit a number of balls that I thought were HR's, but were caught on the warning track/wall.
I won't sit easy until I find out the reason why Pettite was taken out. If it was something like a brusied shin (from the ball hitting him), that's fine... but if its a strained ribcage muscle (the thing that's sidelined Backe since July) from sliding and making that throw, I won't be too happy about our prospects. Pettite is probably the main reason we are where we are right now. We actually don't win many of Clemens starts, and lately we've lost some of Oswalt's too... but it seems like everytime Pettite takes the mound, we find a way to win (even if he doesn't get the victory).
Not so lights out lidge.... Come on Brad! Lidge isn't even close! Come on! We aren't playing cricket! 1 run games give me the sh**s.
He still gets the job done. I maintain that Lidge has been hampered more due to lack of regular work, and a tinge of faulty mechanics due to overthrowing his slider. Also, batters have now developed an approach to Lidge... look for a first pitch fastball, and then after that always look for the slider. If its low, let it go. If its high, assume its a slider... if its a fastball, just try to make contact and foul it off. Then, if Lidge has bounced 3 or 4 sliders in a row, look fastball all the way. Since that is the approach that has given him more problems in finishing some guys off, I think him and Ausmus want to get his fastball to be thrown more often and in better locations. That being said... the guy still comes thru when it matters most.
Bottom line is that I don't feel 100% like I did last year. But he was in such a zone last year that it would be unfair to expect that year in and year out. (EDIT: Especially because, as you said, batters have changed their approach to him now. Lidge is on record as saying he's throwing more fastballs for the reasons you mentioned.) I'd still take him over just about any reliever in the league; it just makes me nervous when he gets a guy on base. (Whereas last year I figured it didn't matter because he'd strike out the side anyway.)
Bottom line is, Lidge can't throw his slider consistently for strikes right now and the batters are looking for the heater. Good ML hitters can hit mid-90's fastball, as Rollins showed when he scorched it in the 9th. Brad should check out the tapes of late last year to see if he can find something in his delivery to see if he can get control of that slider----it's his bread-and-butter
I think we're the only team in baseball that has two full-time pitching coaches (albeit, one of them swings the bat every now and then).
The Wizard must go deep (7 or 8 innings) today and a bloutout will surely not hurt in the process in order to give the bull some blow.
