Phillies Recap: September 5, 2009

Houston Astros 5, Philadelphia Phillies 4
W - Valverde (3-2), L - Lidge (0-7)

For most of the night, Roy Oswalt shut the Phillies down. However, he left in the seventh inning due to a stiff back and Joe Blanton kept the Phils close. A couple of two-run innings late propelled the Phillies to a brief lead, but Brad Lidge blew yet another save. The Astros defeated the Phillies by a final score of 5-4.

Joe Blanton got off to a rough start as Hunter Pence drilled another two-run homer and later added an RBI-single. However, as always, Blanton battled tough and kept the Phillies and their struggling offense close. On the night, Blanton went six innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits. He walked one and struck out five. Brett Myers came back from his hip injury and pitched a scoreless frame before Brad Lidge blew his tenth save of the season.

For the Astros, Roy Oswalt was dominant for them. He racked up strike outs early and rarely allowed base runners. After going 6.1 scoreless innings, he exited the game with a sore back. The Phillies would go on to add two earn runs off of him, while striking out eight times. The Astros bullpen yielded two more runs in the eighth, keynoted by Ryan Howard's RBI-triple. But yet again, the Phillies failed to score tack-on runs, leaving the bases loaded in the eighth inning. It would eventually cost them the ball game.

This was a devastating loss for the Phillies, who have now dropped back-to-back games against the Astros. Another weak offensive performance was almost enough, before Brad Lidge surrendered the game winning runs. It has to be very concerning for the Phillies that their offense and their closer have struggled so much down the stretch. Fortunately, they have a large enough lead in the East to regroup before things get too tight.

Phillies Breakdown: Pitching Depth

With the acquisitions of Cliff Lee and Pedro Martinez, the Phillies seemingly have a surplus of starters on their 40-man roster. Once the relief pitcher injuries straighten themselves out, the Phillies bullpen might be just as deep. Rodrigo Lopez, who as spot-started five games, made his first appearance out of the pen last night. That still leaves six starters for five potential starters:

1. Cole Hamels
2. Cliff Lee
3. Joe Blanton
4. J.A. Happ
5. Jamie Moyer
6. Pedro Martinez

Meanwhile, the relief corps has been hit by injuries and some inconsistency this year, led by Brad Lidge's less-than-perfect season. Chan Ho Park has been a pleasant surprise in the pen, becoming much more dominant there. And, with Brett Myers' recovery from hip surgery way ahead of schedule, the bullpen could get a shot in the arm. Assuming everyone regains their health, here is how their relievers would stack up:

1. Brad Lidge
2. Ryan Madson
3. J.C. Romero
4. Chan Ho Park
5. Scott Eyre
6. Chad Durbin
7. Clay Condrey
8. Rodrigo Lopez
9. Brett Myers

Obviously there are a total of 15 pitchers listed and the Phillies will most likely carry 12 or 13 into the playoffs. However, once Major League rosters expand to 40 players on September 1st, you can expect to see all of these names, health pending, on the active roster. You would expect that all six of the starters identified will remain on the roster, leaving the question to be which of the latter three will be moved to the pen. Despite his dominance this season, the most likely candidate is Happ.

This also begs the question of Pedro Martinez, who has not pitched all season. Martinez pitched well in an August 5th rehab start, and he could be able to join the Phillies rotation as soon as their August 11th or 12th in Chicago. This might make sense, considering Pedro has such dominant numbers against current Cubs (mostly against Alfonso Soriano).

So now for the statistics. Here are the current statistics for the afore mentioned starters (excluding Pedro Martinez, who has not pitched) in 2009, through August 5th:

Hamels: 7-6, 21 G, 123.0 IP, 4.68 ERA, 107 K
Lee: 8-9, 23 G, 161.0 IP, 3.02 ERA, 113 K
Blanton: 7-5, 20 G, 125.1 IP, 4.02 ERA, 107 K
Happ: 8-2, 26 G, 115.0 IP, 2.74 ERA, 86 K
Moyer: 10-8, 21 G, 118.1 IP, 5.55 ERA, 68 K

Clearly, the weak link here is Jamie Moyer. Despite not having appeared in relief since 2004 when he was with the Mariners, Moyer fits the bill of an inning-eater out of the pen. However, his style of pitching does not typically lend itself to any type of situational relief. As a result, it would not surprise me to see Moyer left off of the playoff roster, especially in a short NLDS series.

The next assumption, barring a waiver wire acquisition, would be that Brett Myers can return to a relevant role in the bullpen. If he can capture some of the magic that he had as the Phillies' 2007 closer, the team would have another power arm in the back end of their bullpen. This would most likely leave either Rodrigo Lopez or Clay Condrey off of the roster. Nevertheless, it is always good to have options, especially with injuries and inconsistency prevalent this season.

With these 15 arms, there is no doubt that the Phillies will construct a championship-caliber rotation led by Hamels and Lee. If they can creatively build the bullpen to be as effective as the starters, the Phillies' pitching depth should become a strength of the team down the stretch.