It's always sunny in Philadelphia I've been overly critical of the offense; however, going to face Roy Halliday, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt on consecutive days on the road is not a great way to fix things, especially without your best two hitters.
Now, the Rangers escape a road sweep with a 2-0 win today behind Matt Harrison, and head home to face a much easier Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals rotations with the possibility of Josh Hamilton and Nellie Cruz returning.
The story this weekend should not be about losing a series as much as it's about the hitting and just how piss-poor the Phillies and Rangers are on offense.
For the weekend, in total (both teams):
9 runs -- 38 hits -- 13 walks -- 41 strikeouts.
That's an average of three total runs per game, 6 hits per team, 2 walks per team and 10 strikeouts a game. That was as much a playoff series as anything.
As for the Rangers, a billion kudos to C.J. Wilson, Colby Lewis and Harrison. I thought all three were really good. I thought Wilson was particularly nasty, Lewis deserved a better fate and Harrison was just rock solid. For the series:
22 IP - 16 hits - 5 runs - 7 walks - 19 strikeouts.
That should win you two games. It got them one, and considering the two other games came against two of the foremost starting pitchers of the past decade, we'll take it.
What Wilson, Lewis and Harrison were able to do -- outside of keep their team in all three games -- was protect the rusty and irregular bullpen. For the series:
3 IP - 1 hit - 0 runs - 1 walk - 1 strikeout.
Heading into next week, the bullpen is well-rested, the starters are on a roll and Hamilton and Cruz are back Monday.
Let's party.
