Frustrated Phaithful

I've been trying to gather my thoughts on last night's game all morning in an effort to come up with a meaningful, coherent post. To put it mildly, the result has been less than stellar. The best I can do is come up with some observances about everyone's favorite left field, Pat Burrell: This has been discussed on other blogs, but Burrell's bat speed is very slow and getting slower. Andy Pettitte threw him a 90 mph fastball and it appeared as if he didn't start swinging until after the catcher, Brad Ausmus, caught the ball. He just doesn't have "it" anymore and looks completely clueless at the plate. It's starting to look like 2003 all over again. That being said, there has never been any doubt about Burrell's arm, and he showed it off again when he almost nailed Chris Burke at the plate on an Ausmus single to left. I'm starting to become embarrassed about being a Philadelphia fan. I was hanging out down the third base line for most of the game before mving to my seat in left field for the 8th and 9th innings. Big mistake. The people that sit out there live for nothing other than to hate everything. I genuinely feel bad for Burrell. No one should have to live with the abuse he takes inning after inning, day after day. I know that I wouldn't want to have a bunch of clueless dopes screaming at me all day long. I think it's a credit to Burrell that he has never even ackowledged their existence. What are the odds that on a night when Randy Wolf is pitching -- with the Wolf Pack in attendance -- there's a full moon? Well, now it's on to Florida for a four game set with the Fish. And it case anyone missed it, one of the Marlins rookie pithcers threw the first no-hitter in better than two years last night. In so doing, the Marlins have now tied the Phils for second place in the wildcard standings, three games behind San Diego. With 23 games left in the season, the Phils will play Florida for 10 of those. One gets the feeling that they'll just beat up on each other while San Diego or Los Angeles -- who leads the NL West by only one game over the Padres -- will walk away laughing with the wildcard.