Game 134: Oswalt mishandled in Phillies victory (88-46)

The Phillies won Friday night over Florida by a score of 5-3. Roy Oswalt was left in the game too long and the Marlins capitalized, cutting the lead to 4-3. The Phils bullpen, however, shut down the game in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings.

Oswalt had 96 pitches after the first 5 innings, and his spot came to the plate with 2 outs and the bases loaded in the top of the 6th. John Bowker was in the on-deck circle but was inexplicably called back to the dugout in favor of Oswalt, who obviously struck out to end the inning. A two-run single in that situation decreases the Marlins' win expectancy from 26% to 9%. Allowing Oswalt to bat in that situation is completely irresponsible, even if he were 100 percent healthy the entire year (96 pitches in a slight rain is more than plenty, with an 8-game division lead).

As it turned out, the Florida win expectancy stayed at 26%, then increased to 31% after Oswalt allowed a solo home run in the bottom of the 6th inning.

Oswalt actually ended up starting the 7th inning and only retired 1 of the 2 batters he faced before being removed.

Also, Manuel allowed Oswalt to swing at 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2 pitches (all of which were either out of the strikezone or borderline) in the 5th inning with two runners on base and nobody out. Comepletely ridiculous. The Phils ended up scoring zero runs in the inning, but yet again, the Phils bullpen bailed out Manuel.