The thing about a championship-caliber team* is that different guys step up when you don't necessarily expect it. Former Cy Young winner Roy Halladay went out and got shelled last night in Atlanta. But the often forgotten starter, Joe Blanton, took the hill today and delivered in gigantic fashion, earning his team the bounce-back win on get-away day by throwing a complete game shutout. Tremendous effort from Heavy B.
The Phillies got on the board early off a blast of a fly ball by Hunter Pence for a sac-fly to put them up 1-0. That was started by Jimmy Rollins and Juan Pierre getting on base. Small-ish ball, yo.
They added a few more later on with a deep solo blast from Laynce Nix and a two-run homer by Shane Victorino. That was more than enough for Blanton on this day.
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The Braves had 19 hits last night in a game started by Roy Halladay but were held to only three today by Joe Blanton. That's baseball.
It was Blanton's first complete-game shutout as a Phillie and his first since the year two-thousand and seven.
The Phillies head into a huge series down in DC even at 13-13 on the season. Should be a fun weekend.
*we still hope this is a championship-caliber team, don't we? They have to be with their starting rotation.