While I planned on just watching the Phillies-Brewers game yesterday, all three games ended up being absorbed by my eyes. The stress of watching the Phillies almost give the game back to the Brewers subsided when I got the chance to watch the Cubs-Dodgers game, one in which I vested no personal interest. Then, when I could not fall asleep, I found myself really into a pitcher’s duel between Jon Lester and John Lackey, a very fun Red Sox-Angels game. There were a few things I noticed in these games, both good and bad, that merited some discussion. We’ll start with the Phillies-Brewers game.

Two things stood out for me in this game. First, the Phillies offense was really stifled by Mitch Stetter and Carlos Villanueva. They had trouble hitting Yovani Gallardo, as well, and only scored three runs due to fielding blunders by the Brewers and Gallardo’s early wildness. Managing four hits against Gallardo/Stetter/Villanueva/Parra/Mota does not instill massive confidence in myself heading into a Game Two against CC Sabathia. Secondly, why oh why did Cole Hamels come out of the game?

I am not going to rail on Charlie Manuel for making this decision because Brad Lidge had a terrific year, but Hamels had thrown just 101 pitches, after needing just 18 total to get through the 7th and 8th innings. It may have been the fourth time through the order, but this just felt like a move Manuel made because it was “the right thing to do” or the proper and traditional way to manage. The Phillies did hang on to win the game, but Lidge made it very interesting and because he needed so many pitches to escape the ninth inning, his availability tonight, if needbe, is questionable. As my brother pointed out at Phanatic Phollow Up, there were many more cons than pros to removing Hamels.

Next up, Cubs-Dodgers. I know the announcers mentioned this, but boy did that Wrigley Field crowd sound dead. Yes, Ryan Dempster had the best season of his career this year, but wasn’t the point of acquiring Rich Harden to be your ace? As MGL pointed out at The Book Blog, a healthy Harden is much better than Dempster, but Lou was likely swayed by Dempster’s success at home this year. Dempster didn’t seem to have “it” working last night, but the walks through the first four innings were interspersed and not all at one juncture, so the total kind of crept up. In that fifth inning, though, with Marshall warming up and Dempster clearly not possessing his best stuff, perhaps it would have been prudent to have the lefty face James Loney. Hindsight is 20/20 but it just seemed like Lou had too much unmerited faith in Dempster yesterday.

Also, Cubs fans get stereotyped as fairweather and ignorant from time to time, but for them to applaud Greg Maddux as he made his way to the mound to the ninth inning, while they trailed 7-2, was really nice to see. I felt the same way earlier in the season, when Maddux was with the Padres, and he faced Cole Hamels at Citizens Bank Park. Maddux had pitched quite well and when he left, the Phillies crowd gave him a standing ovation. Fanbases may be stereotyped, and the stereotypes may be there for good reason, but this was just very nice to see.

Lastly, the play everyone will talk about in the Angels-Red Sox game is Vladimir Guerrero’s attempt at an extra base on Torii Hunter’s bloop over Kevin Youkilis’s head. My immediate reaction to that play was – “Wow, Youk got that ball so quickly!” It is very easy to see the play develop and question why Guerrero, a slower runner, would even make that attempt, but if that same play occurs ten times, I would wager Youkilis gets the ball that quickly once. That is the type of play where the ball kicks around, or the first- and second-baseman struggle to recover, allowing a first and third situation. Guerrero saw the ball go over his head, figured this would happen, and went for third. I cannot fault him at all. It wasn’t as if Mark Teixeira was on deck. First and third for Howie Kendrick is much more appealing than first and second.

Overall, a pretty exciting first day of playoff baseball with two road teams taking game one. For Thursday, we have James Shields vs. Javier Vazquez at 2:30, Brett Myers vs. CC Sabathia at 6 PM, and Chad Billingsley vs. Carlos Zambrano at 9:30 PM.