Howard Comes Through

It's the top of the 11th inning and the Phils have Placido Polanco on third with 2 outs in a 2-2 ball game. Padres manager Buddy Black elects to intentionally walk Jimmy Rollins to get to Ryan Howard. After walking Rollins, Black then called in lefty Cory Luebke out of the bull pen to come in and get Howard out. Howard clearly took it personally, and laced a double to left field to score Polanco and Rollins and give the Phils a 4-2 lead.

In Black's defense, Howard had been 0-4 prior to his at bat in the eleventh inning and walking Rollins to get Howard out probably seemed like the logical thing to do. But Ryan Howard is still one of the best players in the game, and by walking Rollins the Padres gave him extra motivation and awoke a sleeping giant.

Prior to the 11th inning heroics of Ryan Howard, the Phils got another solid outing from starter Joe Blanton. Blanton surrendered just 2 runs in 7 innings of work. Offensively the Phils had another solid game. Ben Francisco tripled in the 4th to score Jimmy Rollins. The Phils scored again in the 6th off Jimmy Rollins' 2nd RBI of the year to tie the game at 2.

After Blanton's 7 solid innings, the Phils bull pen was dominant once again. Danys Baez pitched a scoreless 8th, and Antonio Bastardo had a 1-2-3 9th with 3 strike outs. In extras Kyle Kendrick proved me wrong and did a solid job of holding the Phils lead. And after the Phils took the lead in the top of the 11th, Ryan Madson recorded his second consecutive save in the bottom of the 11th.

The starting pitching and bullpen are both doing an outstanding job right now for the Phils. Hopefully the Phils bullpen will get some rest tomorrow when Roy Halladay takes the mound. I expect Roy to have a huge game tomorrow after his disaster against the Brewers.