With the sky falling for a number of would-be contenders (Francisco Liriano struggled against the Yankees), the Phillies ended the string of early games with a dominant win. Roy Halladay took to the hill and breezed through seven innings. He allowed six hits and a walk while striking out seven batters in the 11-0 Philadelphia win.

Interestingly, the Phillies piled up 11 runs on 16 hits. Only two of those hits went for extra bases (a double by Placido Polanco and a home run by Raul Ibanez). The Phillies chased Jon Niese after four innings (eight hits and a walk and six earned runs allowed). The concerns about the bullpen remain with Brad Lidge’s injury expected to keep him sidelined until mid-season, but they’ve answered the question about scoring runs in the short-term.

The Phillies have scored 43 runs in the first six games.

I was a crafty southpaw and slap hitter as a youngster, far earlier than anybody should have carried either of those tags. The decision was made that contact was better than the big fly, hence I didn’t make full use of my ass-ets. I hit well, but the glory of the scoreboard-shattering blast eluded me.

On the mound, I never learned to harness the power that laid in what would later be dubbed Quad-zilla. I never found that sweet spot between power pitching and control and, in my youth, you could still get people to chase if you mixed things up … although drilling a few more batters might have been good for releasing frustrations.

Regardless, I wasn’t fleet of foot. I wasn’t the statuesque portrait of a ballplayer. I wasn’t, well, I just wasn’t … but the combination of being a lefty and this means that perhaps I should have kept going.

It’s not too late, is it?

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