Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Posted: 10 p.m.Updated: 11:58 p.m.
By John R. Finger
CSNPhilly.com
BOX SCORE
As the old baseball adage goes, hitting is contagious. That works with both good and bad hitting, apparently.
However, the saying could also be tied onto the Phillies starting pitching, too. Already renowned for its pedigree, the Phillies starters appear to be drafting off one another in a veritable game of one upsmanship.
In Wednesday nights 7-4 victory over the Washington Nationals at the Bank, it was prospect Vance Worleys turn to measure up against Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels.
Tall order.
MLB
But by all accounts, Worley acquitted himself pretty well in picking up his second win of the season. Over six innings, the 23-year-old righthander scattered four hits and allowed one run without a walk all while registering a career-high seven strikeouts.
Factor in Worleys performance and the current group of starters has allowed one earned each in the last four games covering 31 innings. Collectively thats a 1.16 ERA to go with 26 strikeouts and four walks. Considering that Roy Oswalt is still away from the team to tend to a family emergency in Mississippi, things have worked out pretty well.
Interestingly, thanks to a schedule with a couple of off days wrapped around the start of a series, manager Charlie Manuel has been able to get away with using a four-man rotation while going with just 11 pitchers on the staff. Call it an old school, four-man rotation.
But how long will Worley last in a modern-day five-man rotation with the Phils? With Oswalt on the way back and expected to start on Saturday, as well as injured righty Joe Blanton also close to a return (he's scheduled to throw in the bullpen Thursday), Worleys days of pitching for the Phillies rotation could be up. With 12 strikeouts and one earned run in 12 innings, thats sounds like a tough pill to swallow.
Or maybe not.
Im just trying to contribute the best I can, Worley said. Some things are going my way and I just want to stick around as long as I can.
It doesnt seem likely that Worley would be shifted to a bullpen role given that Manuel likes to keep a few starters stretched out and stashed away in Triple-A just in case they are needed. Worley allowed three runs or less in all four of his starts for Lehigh Valley, posting a 2-2 record with a 2.78 ERA.
Still, Worley may have had a chance to make the team out of spring training in a bullpen role had things turned out a little better. Feeling the pressure of possibly winning a job in camp, Worley gave up 12 hits, four walks and four runs in 9 13 innings in Grapefruit League action.
Its not that I dont think I belong here, Worley said. I put a lot of pressure on myself during the spring. I was trying to do too much instead of just going out there and trusting myself.
After becoming the first rookie pitcher to toss at least six scoreless innings for the Phillies since Hamels hung eight zeroes on the Mets in August of 2006, Worley was one out away from matching his six scoreless innings again until Adam LaRoche laced a two-strike double to drive in Danny Espinosa. That run ended a run of 21 scoreless innings in the majors for the rookie.
Ive always been the kind of guy who loves to compete, Worley said. If you put a bigger named guy out there, Id love to go against him.
Meanwhile, the Phillies got Worley some runs, too, which is nice. Actually, the starting pitching may have been so good lately because its had to be. In fact, coming into Wednesdays game the starters had received just six runs of support, a total that was surpassed during Worleys time in the game.
Credit the bottom half of the Phillies lineup for spurring on the bats. The No. 6 to the pitchers spot in the order got seven of the teams 11 hits, including a single from Worley and a 3-for-4 outing from Raul Ibanez.
Thats when we have a chance to score runs when the bottom of our lineup does something, Manuel said. It gives the top of our lineup a chance to put some runs on the board.
Actually, the bottom part of the order did OK with that, too. Ibanez led off the fifth with his second homer of the season, and after carrying an epic 0-for-35 slump into Tuesday nights game, the 38-year old veteran has five hits in his last eight at-bats with three extra-base hits.
According to Manuel and Ibanez, the turnaround has a lot more to do with simply feasting on the Nationals pitching.
Hes swinging the bat better and he does look a lot quicker, Manuel said. He moved a little closer to the plate.
The 0 for 35 is ancient history, Ibanez says.
Im not looking back anymore, but its definitely better this way, Ibanez said. Being able to help the team win is really important.
E-mail John R. Finger at jfinger@comcastsportsnet.com
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