Morning Wood: Blown

Morning Wood is a hard news roundup for your Philadelphia Phillies. Good or bad, it will show up every morning.

Everything. The wind, the game, the save. It all sucked.

The Phillies lost in horrific fashion last night, 4-3. 

Thanks to the rain delay (and a bit of over-managing), the Phillies were down to their last pitcher, David Herndon. He was forced to bat with the bases loaded in the 10th.

Manuel could have hit Wilson Valdez, but if he failed to get a hit (likely), he would have been your pitcher in the top of the 11th- again.

Manuel defended his decision here:

"I didn't have nobody left and I figured Herndon could go at least 2-to-3 innings." 

Ryan Madson blew his first save. He talked about it here. After he blew the save, Tyler Colvin hit a go-ahead home run, but Manuel argued that a fan reached over the fence. The home run was overturned. Video here.

You be the judge:

This will make the Saber nerds hard: Jim McCormick breaks down Dom Brown's BABIP, or for you normal folks, his luck. Here's the conclusion, now go back and read the rest (sort of like Keyser Soze in The Usual Suspects, only without the faux limp):

Beyond the numbers, Brown has passed the eyeball test in most cases. Scouts have noted that he seems more confident at the plate. Base runners will soon learn not to test him too often. Manuel has regularly discussed how he likes what he’s seen from the star prospect.

“He’s shown he has good strength in his body and in his bat,” Manuel said on Thursday afternoon. “He hits some balls that jump off the bat.”

It seems that Brown isn’t truly mired in bad luck, but rather in a learning curve that professional players must endure. He remains a high-ceiling player, one without defined production parameters or limitations.

After the jump, perhaps the most immature video I've ever made.