Pedro Gets the Start
Lets Hope He's Smiling After Saturday
With the series at 1-1, it now moves out to Colorado. Tomorrow night, at 9:37 PM, Pedro will make his first playoff appearance in a while. The decision to use Pedro in my eyes came due to a couple of factors. In the previous game, Cole Hamels early departure forced Charlie Manuel to use Joe Blanton, who may have gotten the start tomorrow if that had not been the case. J.A. Happ has been very productive for the Phillies this year. However, he is inexperienced when it comes to post season play. If he gets rattled early, that may lead to the downfall of the Phillies.
With Pedro getting the start, the Phillies get a lot of things. The most important being experience. In his career, Pedro has a post season record of 6-2 and a total of 13 appearances. His ERA is a pretty solid 3.40. Going out to Colorado in a hostile environment should not phase Pedro. He has been in a lot of games where the opposing teams crowd is rowdy and loud. He is a weathered player who can handle falling behind in a game and working his way out of trouble due to his large amount of experience. While this is his first playoff game since 2004, I don’t see him getting nervous. I expect a calm performance which will hopefully lead to him painting the corners and influencing a lot of ground balls and pop outs.
