Friar Watch

Chris Young: Another ridiculous outing from CY. Lately it seems like he comes out of the gate throwing a no hitter for 3 or 4 innings. Take a look at CY’s numbers for the first three innings over the last 5 games:

15 IP, 5 H, 3 BB, 17 K

The only thing that even gave the Phillies a chance last night was Ryan Howard. This was the first time I’ve been able to watch him hit and it was awfully impressive. Every at bat was an ordeal for Young; Howard fouled off good pitches, wouldn’t fish for bad ones and was willing to take a walk rather than chase a borderline pitch. Young threw 116 pitches in 7 innings, 28 of those were to Ryan Howard.

Heath Bell: Another impressive outing for Bell. He really should be the first option for the 8th inning.

Trevor Hoffman: Howard led off the 9th against Trevor and it was a brilliantly pitched sequence to get him. Unfortunately it seemed to have sapped some of Trevor’s control, he really had problems hitting his spots against Rowand (walk) and Burrell (single). Fortunately the next two hitters were completely overmatched by Trevor’s change up, he struck them both out for the save.

More than any other pitcher, Trevor must get that first pitch over for a strike:

2007 batters facing Trevor:
After 0-1: .106/.145/.167
After 1-0: .263/.333/.474

If Trevor gets that first pitch fastball on the outside corner for a strike the fear of the change up comes into play. If he misses it, he has to throw the fastball again for a strike and the hitter can sit on it.