Roy Oswalt made his first start for the Phillies since recovering from a back injury that has kept him out of action since June. The veteran turned in a decent performance, lasting six innings, and giving up three runs on 12 hits, striking out four, and walking two batters.
Unfortunately for Oswalt, he returned to face Giants ace Tim Lincecum, putting him in a tough matchup in his first game back. The former Astro saw his record drop to 4-7 on the season, as he continues to be the tough-luck pitcher on the staff.
Oswalt let a lot of batters reach base throughout the day, but was able to keep the damage to an absolute minimum. Many of the hits that the right-hander surrendered came on softly hit balls, or bloop hits. Only two of the 12 hits allowed went for extra bases. He got himself into several tight spots in his final three innings of work, stranding 10 batters in the game.
The Giants had 12 base runners combined in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, but Oswalt only allowed three of them to score. In both the fourth and fifth innings, the Giants had the bases loaded with only one out. In the sixth inning, they had runners at the corners with one out. The 33-year old did a great job of controlling the damage, only allowing the Giants one run for each of those major scoring opportunities. He was far from his best, but he kept the Phillies in the game and gave them a chance to win.
Oswalt didn’t have trouble with his velocity, and consistently hit between 91 and 92 mph on his fastball. He did struggle with his command, and made mistakes with his location which the Giants took advantage of.
However, it was an encouraging outing for the former All-Star. His command will become sharper as he settles in and gets back into a groove. If his back truly isn’t bothering him like it was earlier in the season, and the velocity is consistently where it was at on Sunday, the Phillies won’t have to worry about their fourth ace.
Dude Comon, 12 hits does not equal looking good…he was average, a good hitting team would have rocked him, the Giants made two base running blunders keeping the score low, that had nothing to do with Oswalt… however he is a lot better than Kendrick..but dont mislead people he still is on the road to recovery
he pitched like a #4 starter… not good, not great, but decent enough to win….. Lincecum owns Ryan Howard…. dude needs to learn how to hit a curve ball ….. reminds me of Cerrano from major league
Let’s give Oswalt a break, he hasn’t pitched in a while and Oswalt got hurt for his location was up too often.. He’s velocity looked pretty good but he will need to fine-tune his location and keep the ball down.. He will be coming out of the Bullpen come playoff time for I can’t see th ePhils messing with Worley who has been a great surprise all Season..
Starting Pitchers come playoffs — Halladay,Lee,Hamels & Worley
use kendrick and Oswalt out of the Bullpen for mid/long relief of situational pitching or after a rain delay, extra innings .. either way, this would really strengthen the bullpen