Phillies 2, Braves 0

Wednesday, April 21st

Roy Halladay is to awesome as this Golden Lab puppy is to cute......... What? Too soft for a sports blog?

Give the Cy Young Award to Roy Halladay right now.

Halladay pitched his second complete game, got his fourth win and lowered his minscule ERA to 0.82.

This guy is a hell of a lot of fun to watch. The way he uses all five or six of his pitches… it’s absolutely impossible to sit on something if you’re the hitter.

Halladay had some fun battles with Jason Heyward, who I’m convinced is some kind of man beast.

The key play of the game, obviously, was the double play turned by Chase Utley with the bases loaded in the seventh inning. With one out, Yunel Escober hit a hot shot up the middle, which was stabbed by Utley, who flipped to Juan Castro for the start of a 4-6-3 twin-killing.

Halladay also benefited from a home run taken away by Shane Victorino in the second.

Jayson Werth hit an RBI triple. Werth, Utley and Ryan Howard are all batting well over .300.

While the runs haven’t been coming in bunches lately, the pitching has been solid. Throw away Jamie Moyer’s five-run inning against Florida last Friday and Ryan Madson’s disaster in the ninth Tuesday.

The bad news coming out of the game was Placido Polanco, who with a bruised left elbow after getting his by a pitch.

He could miss Thursday’s series finale.

Tuesday, April 21st

Braves 4, Phillies 3

Ryan Madson had two outs and a three-run lead in the ninth inning Tuesday. Troy Glaus hit a two-run shot and a few pitches later Jason Heyward muscled one out of the park.

Two batters later, in the bottom of the 10th, Nate McLouth delivered a walkoff homer off Jose Contreras.

Just like that, the Phillies’ losing streak expanded to three games.

Madson ruined Kyle Kendrick’s much-needed strong performance. Kendrick didn’t allow run over eight innings, an encouraging sign after two disastrous outings.

Obviously, Madson doesn’t have a closer’s mentality. That was as big of a choke job that I’ve seen from a so-called closer, and remember, we had more than 10 of those with Brad Lidge last season…

All in all, the Phils played well. This was a game that could bite them down the road. One of those “What If…” games that don’t seem too important right now…. but come September, who knows?

Charlie Manuel is loyal to his players — sometimes too loyal to a fault — so I suspect Madson will remain the closer until Brad Lidge returns…. whenever that might be.

The bullpen isn’t quite a mess just yet, but it ain’t looking good.