Clear Counts, No Walks, Can't Win: Phillies 3, Cardinals 4.

Oh how I wish I was trying to catch up on Friday Night Lights right now. The Phillies wasted another great start tonight, as Cole Hamels went 7 innings with 2 BB and 8 K's in what should have been a pitchers duel with Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright.

AND you would think it was, except here's the thing. Wainwright gave up NINE hits, in 8 innings, and struck out four, on a grand total of 87 pitches. 59 of which were strikes. He faced (by my count) 28 batters and threw a total of 28 balls.

And struck out four.

You don't win baseball games by letting a teams ace throw 87 pitches in 8 innings, especially when he's not missing bats.

But I digress.

Cole and Wainwright went toe to toe in the first three innings, both surrendering two hits in a scoreless fashion. In the top of the fourth Hamels got into a little trouble by walking Matt Holliday to lead off the inning. Three pitches later, Allen Craig hit a routine fly DOUBLE. I don't know what else to call a play where John Mayberry LITERALLY FELL DOWN, running his route. Perhaps there was a mermaid in the stands. Perhaps he had finally figured out the last sentence for that novel he's been writing, who knows, but it was... Something. So, of course, with runners on 2nd and 3rd and no outs instead of a runner on first with one out, on the next pitch, Yadier Molina hit a FOUL BALL DOUBLE, which, is what you call it when the umpire rules a foul ball a double, and the Cards are up two zip.

It should be noted that since Mayberry NEVER TOUCHED THE BALL, but FELL DOWN, Craig's at bat was ruled a hit, not an error, so Cole gets the earned runs there. And that folks, is why ERA is a bogus statistic.

Hamels then cruised the rest of the way, retiring the next nine batters. Flash forward to the sixth inning. A Rollins Double, and a young Freddy Galvis, getting the start in left field BECAUSE THEY NEEDED HIS BAT IN THE LINEUP, with a hard hit opposite field double of his own, to drive in Rollins, Chase Utley Single, and Boom. Tie ball game.

Then BOOM. Top of the seventh. Hamels gives up a double, to David "I STILL HATE YOU SO MUCH" Freese, Jon Jay bunts him over and Pete Kozma drives him in on a fly ball to right field that Mayberry aimed in the general direction of the mermaid he saw earlier, up the line and the Cardinals take the lead again.

Seriously. Delmon Young could have played the worst game of his life and had a better game in right field tonight than Mayberry. Don't look now but if Galvis keeps hitting, he could very well end up our starting left fielder a month from now.

But I digress again and guess what? Bottom of the seventh! Kratz your hands! Kratz ties it up with a seeing eye grounder! 3-3! Were back in it.

And finally, as it should be per the book, Mike Adams comes in in the 8th, ready to lock down the bridge to Papelbon. He gets Matt Carpenter to strike out swinging and ....

Carlos Beltran takes him deep for the second surrendered home run by Adams this year.

Now not to alarm anyone, its only been two weeks, but Mike Adams gave up his second (as well as his 3rd and 4th and 5th) Home run of the season last year on September 27th. He averages about 1 HR every 25 games the past three years. This is not a guy who is prone to the long ball. He's surrendered two in 7 innings so far, along with 7 hits. It's early, but his velocity is down, he had thoracic outlet surgery, were paying him this year and next year, and I'm about two appearances away from really being concerned. As Taco Pal mentioned in an email..This is starting to smell a lot like Tim Worrell.

The Phillies mounted a little comeback in the bottom of the ninth but it fell short and boom again. 4 in row. Wrong Direction.

Again. No walks. Adam Wainwright faced 28 batters. 18 of those batters saw three pitches or less, and two of them were strikeouts. Add in the other two 4 pitch strike outs, and thats really all you need to know about the Phillies woes. You conspiracy theorist/apologists out there who wanna blame the foul ball call, well, guys I hate to say it but we deserved to lose this one.

New day tomorrow and Doc's on the hill. So... Yeah. Excuse me while I get some more pepto.

Catz Out.

Fangraph of no walks below.

Source: FanGraphs