Let’s hope the fans in San Diego last night didn’t go to the game expecting to see a display of offense. Then again, they are Padre fans, so they should know what they’re getting.

Last night was a classic Petco Park affair, with the Marlins beating the Padres 3-2, though the Marlins did have 14 baserunners, once again bringing to light the issue they seem to have in getting “big hits”.

On the pitching side, Volstad looked rocky at first, giving up 3 walks, 3 hits, and 1 run in the first 3 innings, but he strengthened up in the next 4 innings, allowing only 1 hit, 1 walk, and no runs.  The bullpen followed him up, allowing only 1 hit until Leo Nunez gave up his first home run since May 20th, while getting the save.

Now that all that’s out of the way, it’s time for everyone’s favorite segment, the handing out of the Craig Counsell Hero of the Game Award!

Today’s winner (due to lackluster play by the entire team) is…

Christopher Kenneth Volstad!

Yeah Chris, we feel the same way.

Jamie Moyer allowed one hit in seven innings to continue his domination of the Florida Marlins, Ryan Howard hit his 200th homer to sustain an unprecedented pace and the Philadelphia Phillies extended their winning streak to six games with a 4-0 victory Thursday night.

Ryan Madson and J.C. Romero pitched one perfect inning each to complete the Phillies’ one-hitter.

Moyer (9-6) limited Florida to two baserunners and departed after throwing 94 pitches. The 46-year-old left-hander has won all eight of his career starts in Miami, and he’s 13-2 overall against the Marlins.

The Phillies enjoy the longest current winning streak in the majors, and they’ve won 10 of their past 11 games.

- CBS Wire Reports

Volstad really can’t keep the ball in the yard, and it’s the damnedest thing because it’s really anomalous for him. He’s never given up home runs like this, and you want to say it’s unlucky as I alluded to in my pregame post, but quite frankly, he’s leaving too many hittable balls up in the zone.

The Marlins need this series. If they somehow get swept here, you can pretty much write off the season. You hate to say must win, but winning the next three is huge, and two of three is absolutely essential.

Moyer continues to be tantalizingly befuddling to the Marlins, and really there’s no reason for it. These guys need to be better prepared for a guy who is very easy to hit, and yet they have consistently failed to make adjustments. I’m not going to be knee jerk and say that is represents a failure on hitting coach Mark Wiley’s part because, well, Moyer’s just one pitcher. But it’s extremely frustrating to watch a guy who looks like he wouldn’t flourish at the high school level one hit a major league team.

Note

One thing we’re going to be doing is selecting a “Fish of the Game” during Marlins wins to denote the player or players who played the key role in the victory.

Of course, it’s only fair to spread a little blame around in losses (and, in all honesty, it’s fun!), so in our inaugural post game story, I introduce the illustrious Scott Olsen Mugshot Memorial Award for the Marlin who’s play contributed most to the Marlins loss. At the end of the season, we will feature a season long winner (Bonifacio is currently in the lead, though Coghlan is making a strong push recently).

Without further ado, and with much fanfare, I present the very first recipient of the Scott Olsen Mugshot Memorial Award in a miraculous, split ballot decision:

Chris Volstad!

AND

The Marlins bats!

Speaking of Volstad:

Volstad is someone I’ve analyzed and agonized over all year because he really makes no sense.  Low LD rates, good GB rates, low FB rates, decent K rates and improved control, and not an outrageous amount of hits. When he does get hit hard, though, it goes flying out of the park. I’ll probably devote a whole post to trying to figure him out someday soon when I get the time to look at PitchFx

Volstad has probably been miscast by most Marlins fans; he was a top prospect not because he had top of the rotation potential but because he was exceptionally projectable and was a safe bet to be a productive player.

(Had to include a picture of Volstad from his high school days since my high school, Flanagan in Pembroke Pines, beat him in his last start as a senior on our way to a state championship. Sorry, Chris.)

Chris Volstad

Volstad is 6-foot-7 22 year old with a low-to-mid 90′s fastball and a nice spike curve ball that makes his living when he’s going well on forcing hitters to pound the ball in the dirt and feeding his middle infielders grounders. When he has been on this season, he’s been great; 8 of his 18 starts have feature less than two earned runs crossing the plate, including the first complete game shutout of his career when he allowed just 5 hits while striking out 6 and walking none in his last start before the All Star Break against the Giants.

However, Volstad has been prone to giving up home runs, and that’s really been the biggest problem (and the biggest outlier) of his season. When looking at batted ball data, he is among the league’s leaders in home runs per fly ball, an astounding 16.2%. He doesn’t allow many fly balls, but he’s getting killed by those that do make it to the air.

The last time he faced the Phillies, he gave up 3 runs on 6 hits, including two home runs in a 6.2 IP W.

Lineup behind Volstad:

Emilio Bonifacio 3B
Jeremy Hermida LF
Hanley Ramirez SS
Jorge Cantu 1B
Dan Uggla 2B
Ronnie Paulino C
Cody Ross CF
Brett Carroll RF
Chris Volstad P

VS

Jamie Moyer

The term “ageless” had been used to describe Jamie Moyer for the better part of the last 7 seasons or so, but as it inevitably does, age seems to be catching up to the 46 year old lefty, who is in the midst of arguably his worst season ever.

Moyer’s trademark control has been there, but besides that, nothing has gone right for him. He is allowing 2 home runs per nine innings, and although that is with a high 15.2% HR/FB, he has been throwing more fastballs than ever this season (65% of his pitches, compared to about 40 each of the past 3 seasons, according to FanGraphs) and hasn’t been using his great change up or cutter nearly as often. If you top out at 84 MPH and you are throwing that pitch 65% of the time, you’re going to get pounded.

Still, Moyer has his reputation as a Marlin killer to uphold after his most recent start in Florida, a 4 run, 6 IP loss. Despite that, he still owns a 12-2 record with a 3.06 ERA in 14 starts against the Fish, so he had historically had their number. He is 7-0 with a 1.58 in 7 starts at Former-Dolphins-Joe-Robbie-Pro-Player-Currently-Landshark-Stadium in his career.

Prediction:

No Pedro to save the Phillies tonight, and Paulino, Cody, and Hanley are going to tee off on Moyer’s beer league fastball while Volstad keeps the ball down, though it’s hard to not give up home runs to this team, so that might still be a problem tonight. Marlins win on an early surge.