Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Meltdown, Part 2

Brad Lidge had yet another meltdown last night. He blew his seventh save of the season, giving up the game tying run to the Cubs in the bottom of the 9th by giving up a couple of hits and a back-breaking lead-off walk. Luckily, the Phillies won the game in the 12th inning, in spite of Lidge. Chad Durbin, just returned from the disabled list, got the win.

"I'm definitely frustrated by it," said Lidge. "I know in that situation you never want to give up a leadoff walk. I felt that maybe those pitches were pretty close, but that being said, I could have made them closer so they had to be called strikes. I was definitely frustrated by it. We'll just leave it at that. The bottom line is, it's a leadoff walk, it's a one-run game, and it kills you. I'm not happy with how it went, but I'm happy we got the win."

He shouldn't be happy with it. He sucks this year. Massively. And he has absolutely no business being a closer now, at the height of a pennant race. His ERA is a very grim 7.29, and he cannot be relied upon for anything other than to give up at least one run virtually every time he appears now.

It's time that Charlie stop trotting Lidge out there with the game on the line, and use Madsen or Durbin as his closer until Brett Myers comes back. Lidge just cannot be relied upon with the game on the line this year.

2 comments:

  1. What did you think of last night's game. Pedro didn't blow me away but I definitely got a warm feeling. It's only the middle of August but I am starting to feel the October excitement.

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  2. I thought Pedro did well, but other than the strikeouts, there wasn't a huge difference between what he did and what Moyer's numbers have been. Pedro has to be better.

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