Saturday, May 3, 2014

2013 Topps Update #US30 Mike Adams

Nationals 5, Phillies 3
Game 27 - Friday Night, May 2nd in Philadelphia
Record - 13-14, 5th Place, 3 1/2 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  The bullpen blew another game as Mike Adams and Jake Diekman couldn't escape the eighth without giving up the lead and the Nationals won, 5-3.

What It Means:  The bullpen ERA of 5.07 is the worst in baseball.  Going into this past offseason, one of the main priorities was strengthening a weak bullpen and one month into the season it appears as if GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. has failed spectacularly.

What Happened:  I don't want to rehash the eighth inning, but starter Cliff Lee left after seven innings with a 3-2 lead.  Adams began the eighth, didn't retire a batter and the Nationals ended the inning with a 5-3 lead.

All three of the Phillies runs came courtesy of a first inning home run from Marlon Byrd, which was only made possible when Nationals right fielder Jayson Werth missed Byrd's foul, fly ball (to prolong Byrd's at-bat.

Featured Card:  I wanted to feature a card of new National Kevin Frandsen, but I've already featured all of the Frandsen cards in my collection in previous posts.  Frandsen was understandably bitter in his pre-game comments to reporters when asked about his departure from Philadelphia.

Instead, here's the lone standard sized Phillies cards of reliever Adams, who needs to seriously turn things around in order to get his 8.31 ERA back down to a respectable level.

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