Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Jamie Moyer, Phillies relief ace

(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
This Jamie Moyer would have never lost his spot in the Phillies rotation, that's for sure. In a game started by Pedro Martinez that was subsequently stopped by rain, Moyer had one of his best performances of the season, pitching 6 nearly perfect relief innings to lead the Phillies to a 5-1 win over the Diamondbacks.

Pedro started the game by giving up a homer but settled down nicely, pitching 3 innings and giving up only that one run. Then the rains came, delaying the game for over an hour, and out went Pedro and in came Moyer. The Old Man pitched amazingly, allowing only 2 hits, walking none and striking out 5 to earn the win, his team-leading 11th on the season. Moyer also helped out with his bat, getting a pair of singles to raise his batting average to .152, an average that towers over Eric Bruntlett's .129. (Why is Bruntlett on the team again?)

Pedro said it best in his post-game interview: "You never know what you get when you put two old goats out there. It's a scary combination" (quote via Todd Zolecki on Twitter). Pedro and Moyer, all 83 years between them, combined for one of the best pitching outings of the season. Baseball may be a game for kids, but these old guys dominated tonight.

Old Man Moyer was on a mission tonight, to prove that he still belonged in the rotation. Ultimately, this performance won't get him where he wants to be, but it's nice to know that he can be counted on after a long rain delay. Moyer knows that if he had pitched anywhere near like he did tonight at any other point in the last few months he would have never been in this situation to begin with. Knowing that he still has a few more good innings left in his arm gives the Phillies just one more weapon that will help them in their march towards another World Championship.

7 comments:

fanfordecades said...

OOOH! How quickly we forget! Jamie HAS pitched, as columnists have put it, "masterfully" in both June and July of this year. Two great months for Jamie. Go back and look at his monthly ERA breakdowns. He had a tough spring and two bad games in August. To say that "if only he'd given us that kind of performance in the last few months" is not true and not fair to Jamie!

allthingsphilly said...

How can you say he pitched "masterfully" in June and July? He pitched better than he did in April and May, but that's not really saying anything.

fanfordecades said...

Sorry 'bout that! I should have added footnotes! I was quoting headlines from MLB.com from July! In June Jamie's ERA was 4.8, In July it was 3.3. "masterful" was not my own wording, but from MLB.com. Also from the Phillies website "dazzling seven inning shut-out" ..stuff like that. I just happen to agree with them. Just go back and check the headlines...He had two bad games in a row in the beginning of August. All of our players have had slumps, and not just the pitchers.

Anonymous said...

I saw the post game and that is not what Pedro said. I believe he said "Two old goats for the price of one" to be exact. That line that is quoted from his is absolutely bogus.

fanfordecades said...

I wasn't quoting Pedro or anything post-game from this week. I was quoting sports columnists from MLB.com and the Phillies website regarding Jamie's performances in June and July.

fanfordecades said...

Sorry 'bout that anonymous! You're right! I didn't re-read THIS article! He is misquoting Pedro!

allthingsphilly said...

My Pedro quote came from Todd Zolecki via Twitter. He's very reliable, I doubt that it is wrong. It doesn't necessarily have to be from the post game press conference, guys get asked questions all the time.