Daily Notes (8/7): Ben Sheets, Phillies Dominance
Good morning guys and gals, isn’t it wonderful to wake up and look at this nifty box score?
Yes, it is always wonderful to wake up to a win and even more wonderful when you are waking up to a win at the expense of everyone’s least favorite Philadelphia Phillies. It’s better yet when Ben Sheets (playing with a minor league contract) goes into 8 innings while giving up 1 run with 0 strikeouts. The strike outs part isn’t all that cool but it is still kind of interesting that he did so well in so many innings without a single K to show for it.
Ben Sheets
Since signing with the Braves Sheets has been nothing short of astounding. No one really expected him to do much more than eat some innings and maybe turn into a decent middle of the rotation arm. A bit of a “veteran presence” really, but nothing more.
Well all he has done is go 3-1 in 4 starts and 24.2 total innings (just over six innings per start) while giving up just 4 earned runs. He has 23 strike outs compared to just 6 unintentional walks good for a K/9 of 6.47 and a BB/9 of 1.97. He has also allowed just 1 home run over that period of time, coming last night courtesy of John Mayberry.
Maybe old Ben is going to do a bit more than eat innings for us this year.
LOL Phillies
Since I started seriously following the Braves in 2006 the team I despise the most is easily the Philadelphia Phillies, yes even more so than the Mets. The Mets fans at least have the dignity to admit that their team really isn’t very good.
And it’s such a joy to beat up on the really really not good Phillies this year. The Braves have won 8 out of the 10 games against the Phillies this year and even though the team is really old and really bad, it’s just as fun to watch.
Tonight
The Braves go back at it against the Phillies tonight with Mike Minor squaring off against Cole Hamels. I would try and make a story line out of them both being left handed but that’s just too main stream isn’t it?
Instead I’ll just give you this link of Jason Heyward’s 18th homerun last night. By the way that dinger ties his career high set in 2010, with less than 38 games played. I’ll be touching up on Jason’s comeback season sometime soon. I’ll give you a hint though.