Pregame: Phillies Start Up Series Against the Brew Crew

Clifflee6

Any series win is a good one at this point but wow, was yesterday's game painful. Save for Halladay who threw a half decent seven innings, the team just looked asleep, highlighted by the talk of the town today that Rollins could have spun the wheels a bit harder. I don't know. I can't get worked up about stuff like that in a lost season. It looked like Pierre was giving him an earful about it in the dugout. I'm sure this matter was taken care of one way or another. Move on.

Those who follow me on Twitter might notice that I called the six run inning after B.J. Rosenberg walked Jose Reyes to lead off the 8th. Again, this is the time of the year where we have the luxury of seeing what we have.  Schwimer is probably the most frustrating in that he has basically been very good in a quiet fashion as of late but when he fails it's quite loud and quite big. They'll have plenty more chances as will some others in a few weeks when it's time for call ups.

Here they are in Milwaukee ready to open up the series against Marco Estrada who is basically the Kyle Kendrick of the Brewers. He's been starting most of the season and has been pretty underwhelming. The Brewers are not a good team and it just seems like this is a good game to air out the frustrations and the struggles. Cliff Lee could pick up win number 3 easily here today as he looks to right the ship. He's been pitching half decent lately but can't seem to escape a game without having a blow up inning.

Some brief minor league notes. Darin Ruf is on a home run tear in Reading hitting one in 5 straight games. He has 29 for the season. Better read and more knowledgable people than myself with tell you it's a fluke season but I wouldn't mind giving the 26 year old a few major league ABs in September.

Jonatahn Pettibone notched his 3rd win in Triple-A Lehigh Valley last night pitching seven strong and in Reading, Julio Rodriguez suffered a bullpen demotion and responded by pitching three scoreless innings and striking out seven. Many think his future may be in the bullpen anyways. Performances like that will tell you why.

 Tonight's lineup @ Milwaukee: 

  1. Rollins SS
  2. Pierre LF
  3. Utley 2B
  4. Howard 1B
  5. Brown RF
  6. Nix CF
  7. Frandsen 3B
  8. Kratz C
  9. Lee P.
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