Halladay

If I didn't know better, Raul, I would start taking your resurgence personally.

The Phils completed their sweep of the Nationals last night behind a host of hitters including Raul Ibanez, who went 8-11 in the series raising his average to .214. That's right, folks, all the way to .214.

The other news of the night, from my perspective, is that Roy Halladay again looked a lot less than sharp and overwhelming but certainly pitched well for most mortals. He was hit hard at times and struggled to put other batters away at times. He struggled so mightily against Jerry Hairston in one particularly troubling at bat, throwing nine or ten pitches, six or seven of which Hairston fouled off. Halladay simply could not put him away.

Now before you say, "Gimme a break, Goodman, the guy has a 2.19 ERA and is 5-1" let me direct you to the words "most mortals" above. There have been times when Halladay has been hit harder this season than I recall from last year. He gets good run support, which for "most mortals" can result in something of a mental letdown, but not Halladay. He bears down 24/7 as they say. If you don't think so, take a look at the tape when he finished the inning in which the Nats scored two runs. You can see him yelling at himself.

By the way, Jayson Werth was out at the plate despite the attempts by Sarge and Tom McCarthy to exonerate the umpire, who was out of position and could not really see what happened. Ibanez' throw did beat Werth to the plate and Dane Sardinha was a little late in blocking the plate with his right foot. But if one closely watches the replay, while Werth's leg does appear to get to the plate before Sardinha gets the tag down, the tape also shows Werth's leg sliding to the right of the plate by which time Sardinha did tag him.

Speaking of Sardinha, he was given the start for the demanding Halladay because of previous success, but in that inning in which Roy struggled, it was pretty clear they had trouble communicating. You can bet Halladay is trying everything within his power to help Carlos Ruiz recover. On that front, the news isn't good. Apparently, Ruiz tweaked his ailing back and now word has it he may go on the DL.

Coming up in May is some real competition for the Phils. It's a good thing they've been beating up on the lesser lights.