Winning Ugly

The Phils beat the Marlins in Miami last night, 6-4. If you taped the game because of prior commitments, do yourself a favor and just erase it without watching. It wasn't a keeper.

Combining lousy starting pitching from both teams with some less than stellar defense and questionable base-running by the Fish, both teams staggered to the finish line. Joe Blanton, coming back from the DL, looked like he was working a rehab game. Javier Vasquez, coming back for the umpteenth time in his career, looked like he was throwing batting practice. At the end of the game, the Phils' announcers were openly speculating this might be the end of the line for the well-traveled Vasquez.

All of this sloppiness by the starters overshadowed another solid pitching performance from Lance Worley, who came on in relief of Blanton and threw three innings, yielding a lone run. Worley has been one of the early season's pleasant surprises. After the game, in an on-field interview with Gary Matthews, Worley sounded intelligent, humble and glad to be in the big leagues.

It was good to get the lousy starting pitching out of the way in the first game of the series because tonight two of the best pitchers in the league if not the game will be facing off again. Roy Halladay vs. Josh Johnson. We all know what happened the last time these two squared off.

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Have you ever noticed batted balls sound louder in games televised from Miami than anywhere else in baseball? I swear each batted ball sounds like the hitter got all of it. Every time a batter connects in this ballpark, one hears an almost comic-book THWOCK!!! Well, that's because the Marlins clearly have good field mike locations AND they have no one in the stands to absorb or drown out the sound. When the patrons are outnumbered by the ushers, you can be sure sound carries. Absolutely the worst place in the universe for major league baseball. Everyone thinks the new stadium will make a difference. Maybe for one season. This just isn't a baseball town.