Pink Bat Day.

Today all around major league baseball every team will support the fight in breast cancer by using a pink bat during today's games at the ball park for mother’s day. Some teams even wear pink uniforms by supporting the cause in the fight of breast cancer. Breast cancer is one the oldest known forms of a human tumor and it dates back to 1600 B.C. and to this date millions of women around the world are effected with breast cancer. So every year major league baseball comes together to support this cause in the fight of finding the treatment that women need. So if you’re a fan and you are going to the ball game today please support the ones who are in need of help and just supports the cause for a good reason on mother's day at the ball park. It's something that has been issue for millions of years and it's time to fight back and give back, so please help major league baseball in the fight for breast cancer.


This Beyond A Pink Bat, this is Beyond Baseball.
Seth Lempert.

HAPPY HALLADAY!! 6-1

Well today's last game of a 4 game match up with the St. Louis Cardinals would be an emotional one as long time Phillies right hander and Hall of Famer Robin Roberts had passed away at the age of 83 years old of natural causes. Roberts was part of the 1950 Phillies Whiz Kids team who won the National League Pennant. He was probably the best Philadelphia Phillies right handed pitcher and he won 286 games as Phillie. Robin Roberts will never be forgotten as a Phillie and a great ball player, R.I.P. #36. But on other hands and on the mound for the Phils is their newest right handed ace Roy Halladay who would be going for his 6th win for the 2010 season. Pitching for the Cards was former Phillie Kyle Loshse.


We start things off in the bottom of the 1st inning with 2 outs and runners on first and second and Jayson Werth would go deep and hit a 3 run home run (5) and put the Phils up 3-0. Then in the 2nd score is now 3-1 and Ryan Howard would hit a 2 run RBI single to put the Phillies up 5-1 and at this point Loshes day would be done. He went 4 innings, 9 hits, 3 earn runs, 1 walk, and 3 strikeouts not a good game at all for Loshse. As for Halladay he did what he always does and that's go deep into the ball game going 7 innings, 7 hits, 1 earn run, 3 walks, and 9 strikeouts. Also Raul Ibanez hit a solo home run and his 2nd of the year and that has to be a good sign as his average improves each game. The Phillies would end up winning this game 7-2 and would win the series over who was the hottest team to come into play in the NL the St.Louis Cardinals their record is now (18-11).


As for Roy Halladay he improved his record to 6-1 on Thursday afternoon and has an ERA of 1.61 with 48 strikeouts. This guy is what you call a gamer and is always ready to pitch. When it’s his turn to pitch he gives you everything you ask for as a manager, player, and fan, he is the real deal and I'm happy his on my team. Halladay is just someone that you know he's going win every time he goes out there to pitch not only that but he knows this team can score runs for him fast which Jayson Werth did for him in the 1st inning. I mean he's not going to be perfect all the time but 98% of the time he will be and will give you 7, 8, 9 innings of work, that's just what kind of pitcher he is. Roy Halladay and Ubaldo Jimenez are the only two pitchers who have 6 wins on the season already. Jimenez is the only pitcher who is 6-0 for the Rockies this year with a 0.87 ERA. But none the less Halladay is right on his tail to be the best pitcher in the National League. The Phillies will host the (12-15) Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park for a 3 game series and pitching game 1 for the Braves is the right hander Derek Lowe who has a 5.18 ERA with 4 wins, 2 losses, and 21 strikeouts. Pitching for the (17-11) Phillies is the ageless 47 year old lefty Jamie Moyer who has a 5.70 ERA with 3 wins, 2 losses and 15 strikeouts. Phillies - Braves tomorrow night at 7:05 p.m.

I'm Seth Lempert, for Beyond Baseball.

The Return of Blanton.

Well the Phillies will be happy to say that their second big right hander Joe Blanton is back and ready to go. For the first month of April Joe Blanton was placed of the DL with a left oblique strain and from there the Phillies knew their pitching rotation was going to be tight. Filling Blanton's shoes was young Kyle Kendrick who will still be in this rotation with the injured J.A. Happ with a sore forearm. Kendrick's ERA is a 7.61 which isn't what the Phillies were looking for after looking pretty good in spring training. Now that Blanton is back that is just a step the Phillies will need to remain in first place (14-10) in the NL East by a half game over the New York Mets.

Now everyone I have no idea what Joe Blanton will bring to the table tonight. After an injury with what Blanton is coming off of you never know what you’re going to get from him. He hasn’t pitched a big league game since last October in the fall classic and in 2009 he was one the Phillies go to guys with an ERA of 4.05, 12 wins, 8 losses, and 163 strikeouts. I'm sure pitching coach Rich Dubee and manager Charlie Manuel would like to see Joe Blanton go about 6 innings with close to 100 pitches and maybe 1 earn run and 5-6 strikeouts. Just have to hope for the best in this stage and see what happens because this game won't be easy to pitch in.

Blanton's come back will not come easy on Monday Night going against the first place St. Louis Cardinals (17-8) in the NL Central by 4 and half games over the Chicago Cubs. Blanton will have to deal with a monster line-up with catcher Yadier Molina, center fielder Colby Rasmus, right fielder Ryan Ludwick, left fielder Matt Holliday, and the best player in the game big boy first baseman Albert Pujols. Pitching for the Red Birds is Jamie Garcia with a ERA of 1.04, 2 wins, 1 loss, and 17 strikeouts and his start won’t be any easier then Blanton. Pitching against probably the best line-up in the NL with besides the loss of short stop Jimmy Rollins, center fielder Shane Victorino, left fielder Raul Ibanez, right fielder Jayson Werth, second baseman Chase Utley, and the Phillies top gun that they locked up for 5 to 6 years for 125 million first baseman Ryan Howard. Don't miss the Phillies - Cardinals at 7:05 p.m. It’s going to be a show down in Philadelphia!


Seth Lempert, for Beyond Baseball.

Jimenez Stands Alone!

When you think of pitchers who are 5-0 in their first five starts you think pitchers like C.C. Sabathia from the New York Yankees, Roy Halladay from the Philadelphia Phillies, Tim Lincecum from the San Francisco Giants, Felix Hernandez from the Settle Mariners, and even Johan Santana from the New York Mets, but you would never think Ubaldo Jimenez from the Colorado Rockies would be 5-0 in his first 5 starts.


Jimenez who this year already threw his, the clubs, and the year’s first no hitter of the 2010 season won his 5th straight game last night against the Arizonan Diamondbacks and Jimenez stands alone with 5 wins in 5 starts in the MLB. There were few pitchers who were trying to match Jimenez and they were Roy Halladay who got his first lost of the season on Monday night and Tim Lincecum who got a no dissension on Wednesday afternoon. Lincecum in fact is still 4-0 on the year and when he gets his fifth win of the year it won't be is fifth straight in a row. Now there is still one player left who will be going for his fifth win of the season on May 1st and that's Mike Pelfrey from the New York Mets who is 4-0 with a 0.69 ERA. Pelfrey also have a save on the year when they played the Cardinals in that 20 inning game and who knows if it wasn't for that game he could easily be 5-0 with Jimenez.


More about Jimenez, I mean this kid is a beast and how can you not say he’s not in the top 5 best pitchers in the NL and in the top 10 best pitchers in baseball. The guy is clearly the Rockies number one starting pitcher with an ERA of 0.79 with 31 strikeouts. He is a guy who 2 years ago people looked at him and said he’s an okay pitcher not a guy you would your number 1, but boy I'll tell you something he has really stepped up his game in 2010. I know it’s early in the season to say but he could be your next NL CY Young Award winner if he keeps pitching like this to earn his first one of his career. Jimenez will go for win number 6 on May 3rd against division rival and division leaders the San Diego Padres and he will look to be the only pitcher in the major’s leagues to have 6 straight wins in the 2010 season. For Ubaldo Jimenez this is a story that just keeps on getting better.

For Beyond Baseball I'm Seth Lempert.

Phils Have Some Bull Pen Issues!!!

Tuesday night game between the Phillies and Braves was all Phillies in till the bull pen got involved. Let's just make things nice and short, they didn't do their jobs very well.

Pitching for the Phillies was the young Kyle Kendrick who in his last two starts didn't look like he knew how to pitch coming into the game had an ERA of 17.42. So this game was very important for him to pitch well against this strong Braves lineup. Also the pitcher he was going against was the hard thrower Tommy Hanson who's ERA is a 2.81. Well we starts things off in the bottom of the 9th inning where the Phillies were up 3-0. Kendrick had pitched a great 8 innings of work giving up 4 hits and 2 walks, and got 14 ground ball outs. He just shut down the Braves offenses. In the 9th inning manager Charlie Manuel takes out Kendrick because he had 106 pitches thrown, so he figured let the bull pen get some work in. Well if he would have known what was coming he would have probably stuck with Kendrick. They bring in closer Ryan Madson to wrap this game up with a 3-0 lead, he gets the first 2 outs, then gives up a single to Chipper Jones, no big deal. Next batter is Troy Glaus who was 0-3 in the game so far, he hadn't done much to this point until Madson gave him a big fat cheese ball right down the middle of the plate and Glaus made him pay for his mistake by taken him deep and making this a one run ball game. Okay its 3-2 Phillies 2 outs, next up to bat is the young stud rookie Jason Heyward who was also 0-3 in the game to this point. So like his good friend Glaus hitting in front of him he's saying to himself I want some action and BAM he takes Madson's 94 mph fastball deep to tie the game and all this coming with 2 out yet. I know Heyward is a rookie but this guy has a lot of pop in his bat and told people before the season started, he's not like any other rookie that is going through the change of the game; he knows how to play in big leagues for a 20 year old kid. So there should have been no reason for Madson to throw a fastball right down the middle of the plate when you just gave up a bomb to the batter before him and its sad to stay a rookie hitter beat a pitcher who has been in this game for what 7 years now? That's when you know you have a problem, but to Madsons created it's also the catcher Carlos Ruiz fault for allowing Madson to throw that pitch to a guy like Heyward who is going be the next best hitter in the NL someday. Alright so now that all the 9th inning drama is over we move to the bottom of the 10th inning and the Phillies bring in Jose Contreras who hasn't been too bad for the Phils in the pen. He would face Nate McLouth who was 0-2 in the game; his batting average is only like .124 coming into play. Contreras miss's with his pitch and gives up a game winning home run in the 10th inning and the Braves would come back in the 9th and 10th innings to win it by a score of 4-3.

So as we can see the Phillies bull pen is very very weak and just not that good and I saw this becoming a problem before the season even started. Kyle Kendrick pitched one hell of a game on Tuesday and was very good in this one looking for win number one in the 2010 season. Instead he would earn a no discussion pitching 8 scoreless innings. This whole game had to do with management once again, if I see my pitcher is dealing weather his pitch count is high or not I would have let Kendrick finish the game off because you know your bull pen isn't what it used to be like it was back in 2008. Clearly this Phillies bull pen needs some work, whether it's having Lidge and J.C. back I don't know, but I think in the offseason the Phillies could have picked up some better guys then what they did pick up. Madson's ERA is now a 7.71, Contreras's ERA is a 2.45, David Herndon's ERA is a 7.71, Danys Baez's ERA is a 7.71, Nelson Figueroa and Antonio Bastardo both have ERA's of 2.45 and Chad Durbin's ERA is 0.00. So there really are not a whole lot of pitchers you can choice from to pitch in the later innings because you don't know what they're going to bring to the table. The Phillies have lost three straight games, for a team that started off very hot has now cooled off and this road trip is only going to get worst when they play the D-Backs who aren't that bad and when they go against the best pitching rotation in the NL the Giants it's only going to get harder.

The Phillies will play game two of this three game series tomorrow night at 7:05 on ESPN part of Wednesday Night Baseball. On the hill for the Phillies it will be their ace Roy Halladay (ERA 1.13, 3 wins, 0 losses, and 21 strikeouts) who will try to help the Phillies break their losing streak and put them one game up in the NL East. For the Braves they send out Tim Hudson (ERA 2.84, 1 win, 0 losses, and 2 strikeouts) who will try to help the Braves move in front in the NL East for the first time since 2005. This Phillies - Braves rivalry is still much alive!!

I'm Seth Lempert for Beyond Baseball,
Goodnight everyone.

First No Hitter in The 2010 Season!!

This will be a night that Ubaldo Jimenez will never forget in his career as he has made history and team history by throwing his first ever no hitter and also the Rockies first ever team no hitter against a strong Atlanta Braves lineup. Jimenez will join the 263 pitchers who have thrown a no hitter through 1876 to now 2010. Jimenez on Saturday pitched like a super-star and did a fantastic job on the mound, but also don't forget the players behind him helped him alot. Dexter Fowler made an outstanding diving catch in the seventh inning off of Troy Glaus, who smoked the ball in center field. Jimenez threw 128 pitches in 9 innings of work and his fastball was clocked at 97-98 mph, that’s some heat. Remember I told everyone to look out for the Rockies and Jimenez this year. So far he is 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA and 20 strikeouts on the year. Keep an eye on him.


Ubaldo Jimenez had 7 strikeouts but also had 6 walks, but none the less did a great job pitching. In the start of this game he was a little off with his pitches but in the sixth inning he went from the wined up to the straight and from there he started to pitch like a number 1 starting pitcher should. Besides Jimenez's no hitter his teammates came through and put up 4 runs on the broad. Troy Tulowitzki hit an RBI sac fly (6) on the year making it 1-0 Rockies. In the fourth Jimenez did a little do it yourself with an RBI single to put the Rockies up 2-0 and later in the inning Carlos Gonzalez would hit a two run RBI double (5) on the year for him and that would close the game and help Ubaldo Jimenez throw his first no hitter by winning the game 4-0 over the Braves.


Jimenez is the first pitcher in 2010 season to throw a no hitter since Mark Buehrle threw a perfect game last year. Jimenez has made his way in the history books at the age of 26 years old and did so this early in the year. This kid is a gamer!!

I’m Seth Lempert for Beyond Baseball,
Goodnight everyone.

Kendrick Isn't The Answer, Phils Still Win Big With A Bang!!!

Once again the Phillies offense kicks in and helps then win their 7th game of the year by beating the Nationals, although in the beginning it really didn't seem that way. Pitching for the Phillies was the right hander Kyle Kendrick who got the Phillies their first lost a week ago and pitching for the Nationals was Craig Stammen who wasn’t any better than Kendrick.

We start in the 1st where Kendrick gave up 3 runs to put the Nats up 3-0. Then in the bottom of the 1st the Phillies bats went right to work as Howard singled in a pair of runs, then Dobbs knocked in an RBI double and Howard would move to third to tie the game at 3. Ibanez would later bring in Howard on a sac fly to put the Phils up 4-3. Now in the top of the 2nd Kendrick would allow 2 more runs to put the Nats back up 6-4 and that would be the end for Kyle Kendrick who went 1.2 innings, 6 hits, 6 runs, 3 walks, 1 strikeout, and now has an ERA of 17.47. So people who dont like Cole Hamels, well I guess Kyle Kendrick is your answer for your number 3 starter? Coming in for Kendrick was Nelson Figueroa who really saved this game for the Phillies and held the Nats in check and only gave up 1 earn run through 3.1 innings and coming in to follow him was Chad Durbin who allowed no runs through 2 innings pitched. Phillies bull pen is looking very nice right now with an ERA of 1.78 ERA. But the stars of this game were second baseman Chase Utley who went 2 for 4 with 2 home runs (3,4) and 4 RBI's and center fielder Shane Victorino who had a break out game, he went 4 for 5 with a home run (2), a triple, and 5 RBI's and the Philles beat the Nationals 14-7, good football score.

But the issue is now is Kyle Kendrick ready to pitch in the big leagues? To be honest and I said this before....no. He clearly just isn't ready and the Phillies better make a change because when your middle pitcher in the rotation has an ERA of 17.42 that's a problem and that will only get worst in till Blanton returns. But who's to say that he will be 100%? If you were to ask me I think the Phillies need to find someone else and that guy I think they should bring back is Pedro Martinez who I thought they should have signed in the offseason. Last year Martinez did a pretty good job with the Phillies after signing him around the trade dead-line and I think he liked it here in Philly, he fit in well with the ball club and we all know that he knows how to win and wants to win. He may not be the same pitcher he was with the Red Sox but still he's gotta be a whole lot better than Kendrick. I mean I know it's only the second week of the season but Kendrick will at least make 5-6 maybe 7 starts or more before Blanton comes back. So the Phillies better get this in odder because the Phillies can't always put up these types of numbers in games like this when you face better teams and better pitching.

None the less the Phillies still won 14-7 and have the best record in baseball with 7 wins and 1 loses on the year so far. The Phillies will wrap up this three game series tomorrow afternoon at 3:05 p.m. Pitching for the Phillies will be the young left hander J.A. Happ who is 1-0 with 5 strikeouts with 0.00 ERA and for the Nationals they will send out the left hander Scott Olsen who in 2009 had an ERA of 6.03, 2 wins, 4 losses, and 42 strikeouts. Also the Phillies will receive their 2009 National League Rings and that will start at 2:30 p.m. So don't miss that, it will be a good time.


I'm Seth for Beyond Baseball, Goodnight everyone.