Walk Like A Man

Halfway through last night's game, I was wracking my brain, trying to think of ways to justify not giving the Majority Whip to Royce Clayton, who had twice driven in the perfectly on-base Alfonso Soriano with two well-placed doubles.

Thankfully, Soriano's homer would make that justification easier.

It was a perfect night for Soriano, in many ways. He sauntered to the plate four times, got on base four times and scored four times. He's the prototypical leadoff hitter, huh?

What impressed me about Soriano last night was that he wasn't overly aggressive. I had seen him come out of his shoes on some swings, taking monster hacks at pitches early in the count before settling back and being patient when behind. Not last night. He saw 16 pitches and swung at just two, fouling one off, homering on the other. Some of that was Brito's lack of command -- I felt for Sal Fasano who had to stretch and dive for just about every pitch he threw -- but some of it was patience that Soriano has traditionally lacked.

Coming into this season, his career high in walks is 38, but a traditional year is right around 30. (33 each of the last two years) He already has 21. Even if some of them are intentional (4, thanks, Royce!), it's a pretty big improvement in his walk rate.

But, when you can do this, who gives a crap about walks?

Needless to say, Soriano wins the Whip. What more can the guy do?

Royce Clayton had a pretty good game, driving in Soriano twice. It was an interesting night for him. In the first inning, after Soriano walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch, Clayton was batting with a 2-0 count. Clayton's one of those 'professional hitters' (codeword for "bad, but makes productive outs") He grounded out sharply to the third baseman, preventing Soriano from moving to third.

And Frank let him have it. As he tried bounding down the top step, Frank pulled him aside, lecturing him with a stern face, gesturing wildly. He even broke out his magical pointy finger. This went on for Vidro's entire at bat, a minute or two in total.

Clayton responded with hits (past that same third baseman!) each of the next two ABs. I dunno what Frank said, but he needs to yell at Royce more often -- he can't hear my boos from the stands.

Mike O'Connor looked sharp, going after the Phillies hitters, throwing lots of strike ones. They were off-balance all night, lunging at the change-up especially. He was done in by some shoddy defense, as usual. When he got the call-up a few weeks back, I spit out a bile-filled rant about how pathetic it was that Bowden put us into a position to have to call this AA-baller up. Who knew? (And despite what he may crow now, if Bowden thought O'Connor was capable of this, he'd have been up earlier)

Damian Jackson continues to astound with his lack of defense and general head-up-ass play. In the third inning, Chase Jimmy Rollins hit a sharp flare to center. Jackson ranged over, playing it off a hop, but having it kick off his glove a few feet towards left. Compounding the error, he nonchalanted the throw to second, throwing off his back foot and looping it to second, almost as if he was tossing underhand. Rollins was safe, but it was close. A better throw (or even a clean field) and he's still at first, and probably never would've scored on Utley's ensuing double.

Every time I watch him, he makes a mental error. Sometimes it goes for an E, like last night. Sometimes not. For someone who's played since the dawn of time, he's not a good fundamental player.

So five under now? When we were 14-28, would you have thought that we'd be here so quickly? Just if (and I mean if) we're able to take 2/3 from the Phillies and 3/4 from the Rockies (difficult, but not impossible), we'd be two under. Amazing.

Let's get to .500 first. Then we'll talk about where to go from there.

But for the moment, just enjoy it. It's fun to win!