The Philadelphia Phillies have won 18 games in April for the first time in history

The Philadelphia Phillies have won 18 games in April for the first time in history

Yeah, I've heard that a team can get pretty good with four #1 starters.

That's no chickenshit record based on a small base. This April has bested more than 100 previous Aprils. The Phillies' franchise dates back to 1883, and they have been known as the Philadelphia Phillies continuously since 1890! They had kind of a rough start back there in 1883. They lost their first eight games and finished the season 17-80, 23 games out of 7th in an 8-team league. Their #1 starter lost 48 games, and the #2 man fashioned an impressive 1-14 season, although the lads might be forgiven because they were barely old enough to shave. Both of them turned 20 just before the season began. The team's first manager (actually a player/manager) was named Bob "Death to Flying Things" Ferguson, but the Deathmeister lasted only 17 games before they fired his pallid ass.

Death was canned as manager, but his replacement, third baseman Blondie Purcell, retained his services as a second baseman. The game was very different then. In addition to being manager and third baseman, Blondie was also the team's third starter. And what a starter he was! In the only two seasons in which he was a regular starter (197 innings and 196), he assembled records of 4-17, and 3-17. (Hey, you can't say he was inconsistent). The Blond one cruised to a lifetime record of 15-43, assembling roughly the same winning percentage as the lowly 1962 Mets, the modern symbol of baseball futility.

Blondie's pitching was about at the same level at the rest of his game. In 1883 he fielded .841 at third base, had a .290 on-base percentage, and went 13-68 as a manager! Needless to say, he was never again hired to manage a major league team. I'm not sure what the record is for the lowest lifetime winning percentage in history among managers who skippered 80 games or more, but Blondie's .160 has to be right up there ... er ... down there.

The fair-haired one did manage to hang in the majors for seven more years as a player, but his future managers, being presumably wiser in such matters than ol' Blondie himself, didn't let him pitch or play third base.

Back to the present.

Today's win was a complete game by Roy Halladay. In his last four starts, he has two complete games and another outing that fell short by a single out. He has won three of the four starts, despite the fact that the team has scored 3-0-3-2 behind him. (I'm sure you can guess which one he lost.)

Halladay has seemed to be immune from the arm stress normally associated with the kind of workload he carries. In the past three years his innings pitched totals have been 246-239-250. His worst ERA in that period was 2.79, and he has not allowed as many as 40 walks in any of those seasons.