This is my first sojourn into the great (?) state of Texas.... and man, is it hot.

I know, you read this blog for Phils knowledge, not my complaining about the weather. Just be careful when you wish summer would come soon - you might get it.

As I lift my wrists from this steamy laptop (on AC on high yet inside Minute Maid), I picked up today's Phillies game notes (supplied by the astute Phils media relations department, in this case, good man, Kevin Gregg) and I see the following item:

Phillies starting pitchers have logged the second most innings among National League staffs this year, with 286.

As with any stat, there are a couple of ways to look at this: A) the starting pitching is doing a service to the team's bullpen. Since they're not overtaxed, the stars in the pen have been very effective - the relievers' ERA is best in all of baseball, at 2.84.

B) the starting pitching, while eating up innings, relies heavily on the offense to produce if they want to rack up victories. The starter's ERA of 4.56 if 9th in the NL, and thus, in the bottom half of the league's teams.

The performances of lefties Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer notwithstanding, the Phillies will need more consistent efforts from their starters if they hope to win this year. They won last year with offense, but that was fluky.

The Phils can't expect to go back to the playoffs unless their starters begin to produce while they eat up those innings.

Speaking of which, Adam Eaton takes the mound tonight. My guess is Eaton better start showing something in the next two months (before the all-star break) or his spot could be in jeopardy for the rest of '08.

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The Archive Files

You can't beat the matchup that ended last night's game - Brad Lidge vs. hot-hitting Lance Berkman. The Phils won the battle, and thus the game, last night in Houston.

In the notes, Pat Burrell is benched.

(not sure where the updated game story is - following the late game here in Houston, we're an hour behind - I ran down to the locker room for postgame quotes. Sorry they're not on-line. Perhaps you can drop three quarters for the print version at your local Wawa.)

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Quick thought on Minute Maid Park (formerly known as Enron Field):

Even if you've never been here before, I'm sure you've seen the train that runs along the fence in left field. It's a neat feature. (And I found a picture of it online! I wonder if I can go out and be the train's conductor for an inning or two.)

But in the trailer behind this train is a about a few hundred fake oranges, as you can see. Which begs the question: what was in the trailer before the name change - shredded documents?